REVIEW | I AM NUJOOD, AGE 10 AND DIVORCED
AUTHOR: NUJOOD ALI, DELPHINE MINOUI
TRANSLATOR: LINDA COVERDALE
ISBN: 0307589676
FIRST PUBLISHED: OCT 1ST 2019
EDITION RELEASE DATE: MAR 2ND 2010
PAGES: 188 PAGES
EDITION LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
I read this book for the From And About Asia Reading Project
for THE month OF YEMEN, July 2022
Nujood Ali, the youngest divorcee who was granted a divorce at the age of 10, is a brave, smart, and strong girl. This book is a memoir she wrote along with Delohine Minoui, documenting her story, including but not limited to her divorce.
Yemen, where houses “look like gingerbread cottages trimmed with icing“. Picture from Unsplash, by @asamw.
Nujood's story was unflooded with an overview of Yemen, the "magical land with legends as astonishing as its houses, which are adorned with such delicate tracery that they look like gingerbread cottages trimmed with icing", which has another name means "Happy Arabia". Nujood grew up in this land, but her stories do not rhyme with the gorgeous image of Yemen, nor do the stories of other child brides.
When Nujood found out her father has arranged a marriage for her, she was only 10 years old or younger, enjoying her innocent childhood and school life. Without realizing what was happening and what is marriage, she was hurried to marry off a man who is three times her age, and a nightmare began.
In this book, I was struck by the fact that how the decisions of early marriage, for girls in particular, were commonly and casually made in Yemen. In a lot of cases, the girls are a lot younger than the legal age of marriage. And I was amazed at how courageous Nujoob was at an age of 10, to have the determination of fighting for her own life, as well as her siblings.
Book cover of the German edition
I believe Delohine Minoui did a lot of rendering of the book, but I appreciated that the writing kept Nujood's 10-year-old perspective and understanding of the world and family. The things she went through made her maturer than her peers, but she still kept her curiosity as a child, and the eagerness to learn. It's very lovely to read about.
But this memoir is not just about Nujood alone. She also talks about the stories of her parents and her siblings that are as bizarre and heartbroken as hers, and really shows how little people have in control of their lives, in a highly hierarchical and patriarchal society.
If you are interested in Yemeni culture and society, this book will be a good choice because a lot of Yemeni concepts are explained clearly and efficiently in the book. And the stories of Nujood and her family members can be seen as case studies and examples of many phenomena. Exceptionally the "honor" of a family, and how people are willing to sacrifice everything to defend and protect the "honor", even their family members' well beings.
Book cover of the Persian edition
One thing I would love the book to expand on is the legal system in Yemen, and how professional women work in such a society. Nujood encountered many professional women who went through her divorce, it would be great if the book spent more than with them. However, the professional world is still very complicated for ten years old to articulate, so I still appreciate the amount that was shown in this book.
This is not the most elegant memoir I've read, but it's indeed one of the most powerful and emotional memoirs. I was brought to tears a lot of times when reading the book, especially towards the end of the book when Nujood was talking about the aftermath of her divorce.
It's 13 years since this book was first published. Our world has not become a better world for girls and girls' education. There are still countless girls who are abused and assaulted across the globe. And the world hasn't even become better for Nujood, who unofficially changed her name to Nojoom. Because Nujood means hidden, but Nojoom means "stars in the sky". But I will always remember her dreams, and how her courage and her determination moved me.
According to Wikipedia, Nujood was forced out of their home by her father, who has also withheld most of the money paid by publishers to Nujood. Her father also arranged a marriage for her younger sister. Nujood married again in 2014 and now has two girls.
This is also a book that reminds us to fight for girls’ rights for education. We can take action at Malala Fund.
