News
Two Voices against Child Marriage and for Education
Date: 7 November 2008
Nujood Ali, a 10-year girl old from Yemen who courageously escaped from and filed for divorce from a forced marriage, and her lawyer, Shada Nasser, addressed an audience at UNIFEM headquarters today. Both are to receive a Woman of the Year Award from Glamour magazine.
Nujood Ali was married off to a man in his 30s when she was only nine years old. Many little girls in her native Yemen and around the world suffer this kind of fate — but Nujood wouldn't stand for it. After suffering repeated beatings and rape from her husband, she ran away and went directly to the courthouse, asking for a lawyer who could help her. Human rights lawyer and feminist Shada Nasser took on her case free of charge and made history this April by winning Nujood a divorce from her husband, sending a message to the rest of Yemen that marrying girls at such premature ages would not be tolerated. Nujood, now 10, is back at her family's home on the outskirts of Sana'a and has said: "All I want to do now is finish my education. I want to be a lawyer."
Most experts say education is crucial in eradicating the cultural practice of child marriage. The Girls World Communication Center (GWCC) was founded by volunteers in 1998 to help promote female schooling in Yemen, where 65 percent of women are illiterate. Located in Sana'a, the GWCC provides educational programmes, including language classes and computer training, to roughly 2,000 girls each year — most of them at no cost because their families cannot afford to pay. Supported by UNIFEM, IREX and other prominent institutions, GWCC has reached at least 10,000 girls in its 10 years of operation, and many of its graduates have gone on to work at top-tier companies and NGOs in the Middle East, paving the way for other young women to achieve greatness in a region where that happens all too seldom.
With the funds raised through the Glamour Women of the Year Fund initiative in partnership with Vital Voices, the GWCC will be able to implement a new programme focusing on child brides and girls at risk of early marriage. This programme will help change the perception of girls in Yemen to allow girls to keep their childhood — and achieve their full potential. Learn more at http://www.yldf.org/gwcc/en/about.php.
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