The Forensic Nurse

10 year old Nujood Ali claims her ex-husband repeatedly beat and raped her during their brief marriage. The ten year old was part of an arranged marriage in the country of Yemen. 

Nujood’s parents married her off in February to a man in his 30s whom the child described as “old and ugly”.  Her parents were apparently promised that “he wouldn’t go near her until she was 20″.  A promise that did not prove to be true. In the few months that they two were married, the 10 year old girl was repeatedly abused sexually, phyisically, and emotionally.

Arranged marriages are very common in Yemen. It is not uncommon at all for girls to be forced into a marriage to an older man who may even already have one or more wives already. The country’s legal minimum age for marriage was 15 till a decade ago, when the law was changed to allow for children even younger to be wed.

Nujood got her divorce, but based on the principles of Islamic Sharia law, her husband was compensated, not prosecuted. Nujood was ordered to pay him more than $200. The human rights lawyer who represented her donated the money.

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