I just finished I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced. It was a very depressing yet uplifting book. It was sort of spastically written in a way that is not terrible or anything. As I mentioned in my previous blog, the big ideas were revealed very early in the book, but that did not ruin my reading experience as I had feared earlier.
This poor girl grew up not even knowing when she was born. Her family was extremely poor, and to make money, Nujood and her siblings had to beg in the streets. Her father quickly lost his job as a sweeper and just sat around chewing khat all day. Nujood's older siblings came and went for often years or months at a time. Marrying Nujood off would mean one less mouth to feed.
On the night of her wedding, Nujood cried and fell asleep in her wedding dress that was too large. Everyone knew that she was too young, but no woman could ever have a say over a man's. Nujood's father justified it by saying that her husband promised not to touch her until she reaches puberty.
The very next morning, her husband came to pick her up, and that was the first time that they had ever met! He was decades older and ugly. They drove hours to Nujood's native village where her husband lives with his family. On her first night, Nujood falls asleep in an instant before her husband crashes in and demands to have sex with her. She is chased all throughout the house until he finally traps her and rapes her. Nujood fights back and her husband beats her. Her mother-in-law encourages her son to beat her since she is failing to be a proper wife. This horrid pattern of rape and abuse continues for about a month until Nujood is allowed to visit her parents.
At home, Nujood tells her parents about her terrible marriage, and what do they do? Nothing. They say that Nujood must stay and be a good wife in order to maintain honor and a good reputation. This shocks and scars Nujood. She goes to her father's second wife for advice who tells her to go to the courthouse. As soon as Nujood tells her story at the courthouse, she immediately is taken care of. They have a trial with both her father and her husband present. Her father lies about her age, saying that she is 13, and her husband denies all allegations. Then the two of them begin to argue with each other while court is in session which divulges the truth. Nujood wins the divorce.
Nujood's story reaches the news everywhere. Journalists come form all around the world to take down her story. At one point after the divorce is finalized, Nujood is showered with gifts from all sorts of people. It made me remember that this little girl won a divorce. She clings to a teddy bear and is overjoyed at the sight of chocolate cake, yet she has gone through more than I could ever imagine. She's been to hell.
I am not really a fan of the end of the book. After the gift seen, which is really good closure, there's like 40-50 pages left. These consist of piecing together the drama from her older siblings' disappearance/reappearance. I sort of find this section out of place, for after the divorce is final and she is living safely with her family, I don't really care to know what the details of her siblings are. That could have been useful earlier. The last part of the book is her at school. This is okay at the end because she is so so so happy to be at school with girls her age.
Nujood's story really scares me, because I know that there is no way that she is alone. I know that plenty of other girls and boys have gone through similar incidences are ones that are even far worse. The issue of male domination by law and by culture is so upsetting. It is stories like these that make me want to skip college to go and burn down every brothel, every rapists home ever. Nujood's older sister was raped when she was somewhere around 12 and in order to protect the family's honor, she was married off to that very rapist..... How messed up is that? It makes me so angry how little rights or happiness women are entitled to in certain places. It makes me hate myself for complaining about not having a snow-day last week. At least I have rights, a home, and a family who do anything to protect me.
That sounds like a really interesting book, Mary! One thing I was wondering right off the bat was is this book fiction or nonfiction? Or maybe fiction based off of true events? Because I have read books similar this (where girls are married young or sold into sexual slavery) that were fictional, but I know things like this happen every day around the world, which is horrible and terrible.
ReplyDeleteI was also wondering where this book takes place. Based off of the social structure and names of the characters, I’m guessing that this doesn't take place in the United States (although I could be wrong about that).
At the beginning of your blog post you say that the book is both depressing and uplifting. I was wondering what specifically about the book made it uplifting. The fact that she got away from her horrible husband? That she gets to go back to school and be a kid again? Those sound pretty uplifting, but I’m wondering if there was something else that really spoke to you.
If this story was fictional, did you think that having an uplifting ending was cliche? Was it too much of a happy ending for her and unrealistic? Because I know that many times these stories don’t turn out happily-ever-after.
I know that last year you were in Ms. Georgantas’s English class, and I was, too. Do you remember the project on women’s rights? This story reminded me of that project, reading Half the Sky and watching the movie about acid burning. The dynamic between Nujood and her mother in law reminded me of a scene from the movie we watched last year for that project. There was a mother-in-law that trapped her daughter-in-law in the house on fire after pouring gasoline on her. This violent relationship sounds like it was true in the book you read, too. Did you see any other connections between that project last year and the book you just read?
The book is nonfiction, and I could sort of tell that it was written by the girl telling the actual writer her experiences which was pretty cool but also depressing at times. It takes place in capital city of Sana'a in Yemen.
ReplyDeleteIt is an uplifting story because she managed to get just the right advice to go to the courthouse just in time to save her own life. And then, yes, she got to go back to school and be a child again. In the end, all her siblings returned home and they were all together as a big family again for the first time in years. I guess it is cliche, but I was totally expecting that from the moment I read the title so I didn't really care. It is often easier for me to get into books that are overly dramatic or cliche.
What really spoke to me about the book was how the whole time I read it, i was only thinking of how there must be millions of cases like this around the globe. I feel like situations like Nujood's could be so easily stopped, however I know that it is so culturally ingrained in parts of the world. It is so unfortunate. This book definitely brought me back to last year reading Half the Sky in Ms. Georgantas' class. Wow I actually typed that before reading how it reminded you of the same project! I totally remember what you are talking about with the movie. How it wasn't just the man being the perpetrator but his family was just as cruel.
The only other connection I made with this book and last year's project was how so many women just accept submissiveness to maintain family honor and tradition. It was so refreshing to read how a ten-year-old girl was able to defy such terrible conditions all fueled by her own determination. Without even her own mother's help and support, although I sort of inferred that her mom was always quietly on Nujood's side.