Shada as well is not beyond the reach of threats and danger. Her detractors accuse her of promoting a negative image of Yemen. Meanwhile, out in the countryside, nongovernmental organizations are attempting to educate the rural population about the problems linked to early marriage, while remaining sensitive to local traditions. For example, Oxfam, the organization that is by far the most invested in this project, must weigh its words carefully when it organizes consciousness-raising workshops in the southern part of the country. Instead of discussing “the legal age of marriage,” Oxfam prefers to talk about a “safe age,” emphasizing the risks linked to child marriage: psychological trauma, death in childbirth, dropping out of school. The task remains a difficult one, however. “Several of our colleagues who work out in the field have already become the objects of fatwas issued by the local sheikhs, who accuse them of promoting Western decadence and not respecting Islam,” says Souha Bashren, the special projects manager at Oxfam. It would seem that the path to a more enlightened future is a long and tortuous one.

In Nujood’s neighborhood, the lights don’t shine the way they do in New York. In the winter it’s cold, and heating a home is expensive. In Sana’a, the long evening gowns remain behind their shop windows. Every morning someone must go buy bread for the whole family. Often the alarm clock fails to ring, and Nujood’s big brothers doze until midday. As for her father, who is ill and sometimes feverish, he has not yet found work. Nujood’s mother increasingly forgets to attend to even the slightest household chores.

Overwhelmed by the stress of family troubles, Nujood and her younger sister Haïfa had to withdraw from their neighborhood school. After a difficult period, however, both girls are now preparing to attend a private school that offers a more supportive educational environment. The royalties from Nujood’s book, which is being translated into sixteen languages, have already begun helping finance the girls’ schooling and contributing to the support of the family, paying for food, rent, school supplies, and clothing for the children. Later, the money will help Nujood pursue her desire to become a lawyer and to establish a foundation to assist young girls in difficulties. A generous soul, Nujood also dreams of someday building a proper house for her whole family.

Whenever I travel to Sana’a, she asks me to bring her colored pencils. Crouching on the floor of the modest living room, she always draws the same colourful building with plenty of windows. One day, I asked her if it was a house, a school, or a boarding school.

“It’s the house of joy,” she replied with a big smile. “The house of happy little girls.”

DELPHINE MINOUI

SEPTEMBER 2009

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank warmly all those men and women who opened their doors to us, allowing us to tell Nujood’s story so that she can be an example to other girls and encourage them to demand their rights.

We would particularly like to thank Shada Nasser, Nujood’s lawyer, as well as the judges of the court in Sana’a: Judge Mohammad al-Ghazi, Judge Abdo, and Judge Abdel Wahed.

A big thank-you to the entire staff of the Yemen Times, and especially to their editor in chief, Nadia Abdulaziz al-Saqqaf, and to their former reporter, Hamed Thabet, who is currently serving as the political advisor to the German Embassy in Sana’a.

We are infinitely grateful to Husnia al-Kadri, director of women’s affairs at the University of Sana’a, who helped us with her research into the question of early marriage in Yemen.

Our conversations with the personnel of Oxfam, and with Wameedh Shakir and Souha Bashren in particular, were also of great assistance to us.

Thanks are owed to Njala Matri, the principal of the local school in the Sana’a neighborhood of Rawdha, who allowed Nujood to return to the classroom and continue her studies.

We would like to express our profound gratitude to Eman Mashour, without whom this book would never have been published. Her support for the cause of women’s rights in Yemen, her patience, and her talents as a translator were of considerable help to us.

From the bottom of our hearts, we thank Borzou Daragahi for his moral support and his enthusiasm for the writing of this book.

Hyam Yared, Martine Minoui, and Chloé Radiguet kindly agreed to be the first readers of these pages. Thank you for your help!

And finally, we are infinitely indebted to Ellen Knickmeyer, who brought us together in the first place.

This book is dedicated to Arwa, Rym, and all the little Yemeni girls who dream of freedom.

DELPHINE MINOUI AND NUJOOD ALI

Notes

Delphine Minou has supplied notes for the convenience of the reader; a few translator’s notes have been added where appropriate for this American edition.

culture of khat

When chewed, the leaves of the khat plant produce an effect of euphoria that allows the user to forget hunger and fatigue. Other side effects include emotional instability, manic behavior, and hallucinations, while withdrawal symptoms can range from irritability to lethargy and depression. The World Health Organization has classified khat as a drug of abuse that can produce psychological dependence, and although it has been outlawed in many countries, this narcotic is sold freely in Yemen. Its consumption, predominantly by men, is a time-honored social ritual so widespread that khat has become the country’s main agricultural product, absorbing more than two thirds of the nation’s annual water resources in a country facing a serious threat of water shortages in the near future.-Translator’s note

niqabs that match their long black robes

The niqab is a veil that covers the face, allowing only the eyes to be seen. It is worn most commonly by Muslim women in the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf-Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and Oman-and is also common in Turkey, Pakistan, and Iraq.

two months and four years

Yemen has one of the highest rates of infant mortality and maternal deaths during childbirth in the world.

real rhinoceros horn

Since the jambia handle often indicates the social status of the wearer, daggers made with real-and necessarily smuggled-rhinoceros horn and elephant ivory are much more prized than ones with handles of ordinary bone or horn.-Translator’s note

object of child trafficking

The trafficking of Yemeni children in Saudi Arabia is a plague affecting all disadvantaged youngsters who do not go to school. Some local nongovernmental organizations estimate that thirty percent of the school-age children living near the border with Saudi Arabia leave each year to try their luck in their northern neighbor, where work conditions are appalling, and although the subject is taboo in Yemeni families, cases of sexual abuse have been recorded.

the tradition of sighar

Still rather widespread in rural and poor urban areas, the ancient custom of sighar, or “marriage ex change,” involves giving a younger sister of the groom to a member of his bride’s family as a dowry. In Yemen, dowries have great social and economic importance, and are customarily negotiated before a wedding by the men of both families.

legal age of fifteen

In 1999, it became legal in Yemen for parents to give their daughters in marriage before the age of fifteen, provided that the husband promises not to touch his wife until she has reached puberty-a provision so vague that it welcomes arbitrary interpretations and is rarely respected.