Mohammed al-għadha
| Nujood Ali | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Yemeni |
| Other names | Nojoom |
| Known for | Youngest ever divorcee |
| Notable work | I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced |
| Awards | Glamour magazine's Women of the Year (with Shada Nasser) |
Nujood Ali (نجود علي) (born 1998) is a central figure in Yemen's movement against forced marriage and child marriage. At the age of ten she obtained a divorce, breaking with the tribal tradition. In November 2008, the U.S. women's magazine Glamour designated Nujood Ali and her lawyer Shada Nasser as Women of the Year. Ali's courage was praised by prominent women including Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice.
Ali's lawyer Shada Nasser, born in 1964, is a feminist and specialist in human rights, whose involvement in Ali's case received much acclaim. Ali has also written a book together with French journalist Delphine Minoui called: I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced.
Nujood Ali was nine when her parents arranged a marriage to Faez Ali Thamer, a man in his thirties. Regularly beaten by her in-laws and raped by her husband, Ali escaped on April 2, 2008, two months after the wedding. On the advice of her father's second wife, she went directly to court to seek a divorce. After waiting for half a day, she was noticed by a judge, Mohammed al-għadha, who took it upon himself to give her temporary refuge, and had both her father and husband taken into custody.
Shada Nasser agreed to defend Ali. For the lawyer, it was the continuation of a struggle begun with the opening of her practice in Sana'a in the 1990s as the first Yemeni law office headed by a woman. She built her clientele by offering services to female prisoners.
Yemeni law at the time set the minimum age for marriage at fifteen, but families had been allowed to marry off younger girls, by stipulating in the marriage contract that sex with these young brides is forbidden until an undefined time when they are considered "ready." In court, Nasser argued that Ali’s marriage violated the law, since she was raped. Ali rejected the judge's proposal that she resume living with her husband after a break of three to five years. On April 15, 2008, the court granted her a divorce.
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Wikipedia