I Am Nujood

After reading I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced, I remain amazed at the courage displayed by a ten-year-old girl.  I was also struck by the amount of fear and frustration that she must have felt, and how this led her to become desperate enough to seek a divorce.  As I read this novel, I was continually led to compare divorces in the United States with those of Yemen.  While divorces in this country are sometimes still challenging and difficult to go through, it seems that divorces in the United States pale in comparison to those in other cultures. The fact that familial honor plays such a large role and that women have virtually no role in determining who they marry is very disconcerting to me.  Throughout the novel, I kept thinking how lucky I am to live in a society that would allow me to choose who I marry and would also grant me a divorce without making me feel as though I was doing something wrong.  I also feel thankful that I was allowed to have a childhood without fear of being married at such a young age.  In spite of my comparisons and my national pride, I do not believe that Nujood intends for her audience to pity her or to criticize her culture.  By writing this novel, it seems that Nujood simply wants her voice to be heard and to spark some reform in her country.  The fact that she returns home to her family and to the very person who caused her to be married so young (her father) after her divorce is granted, proves that she still has a very strong bond with her family.  It surprised me that Nujood was able to forgive her father (to some extent) and to return home to live with him and the rest of her family.  However, whenever she speaks of her younger sister and her desire to protect her from going through what Nujood went through, it is clear that Nujood feels that her purpose is to take care of her family, especially the women of her family, in order to ensure that they have a chance to have an education and some autonomy.  Taken as a whole, I believe that Nujood's story speaks to the bravery of a little girl who was able to stand up for her own rights, in spite of the beliefs of her family and her society.