Well that's different... and definitely not in a good way.

After a long search, I have finally found a biography that seems very interesting.  The biography I am reading is called “I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced”, written by Nujood Ali with the help of Delphine Minoui.  It is a New York Times bestseller.  A few comments about this book are “A powerful new autobiography…  It’s hard to imagine that there have been many younger divorcées-or braver ones-than a pint-size third grader named Nujood Ali”-Nicholas Kristof, New York Times.  “This book took my breath away.  It broke my heart but put it back together again with a renewed hope in the staggering power of the human spirit”-Carolyn Jessop, author of Escape and Triumph.  Hillary Clinton believes Nujood is “one of the greatest women she has ever seen”.  So far I have read the introduction to the biography, you could consider it as the first chapter, and I am very intrigued to see how Nujood, a ten year old girl, fights for her freedom.

Retell:

Once upon a time there was a beautiful country called Yemen, but the grown-ups gave it another name: Arabia Felix, Happy Arabia.  Yemen was the realm of the Queen of Sheba.  It was a mysterious place where men were never seen in public without proudly holding a curved dagger at their waist, while women would hide their charm behind a black veil.  Yemen was a precious land.  

In centuries past, many tried to invade Yemen to claim the beautiful land as their own.  There were the Ethiopians, the Persians, the Portuguese, the Ottomans, the British, the Turks and the Russians.  The elders would say that this Arabia Felix was always the object of envious desire because it contained many treasures, especially its oil.  It has been many years since the invaders had left, but the violence didn’t leave with them.  The invaders separated the country in two which caused many civil wars.  It was an amazing but troubled country. 

It was in this country where a little girl named Nujood Ali was born.  She was as normal as it gets.  She loves to play hide-and-seek and eating chocolate.  She likes to make colourful drawings and fantasize about being a sea turtle since she has never seen the ocean.  One dark February evening in 2008, Nujood’s world came crashing down.  She broke down into tears when her father told her that she was going to be marrying a man three times her age.  Quickly married off a few days later, Nujood gathers all her strength and tries to find a way to escape her horrible fate...

Relate:

The only way I can relate to Nujood so far is in the way she likes to spend her time as a young child.  She loved to play games like hide-and-seek and draw colourful pictures.  She loved to eat chocolate and fantasize about being different animals.  I know that when I was a child, I definitely loved to do those things too.  What child didn’t?  There are two major things that I cannot relate too, where she lives and being forced to marry a man three times your age.  I’ve never lived or even been to Yemen.  No offense, but I am truly grateful.  I am glad that I live in Canada, that I have my rights.  I do not understand how a father can force his own daughter to marry a man three times her age, knowing that she will not be happy.  I am glad that in Canada, it’s illegal.  I feel so terribly for those young girls.  No one wants to be forced into something, especially a young girl into an arrange marriage with an older, very older, man. 

Reflect:

So far I have learned many things about where Nujood lives and that young girls are still forced to marry older men.  I always knew that arranged marriages existed but I never knew they were still happening, in the year 2011.  I now know a little bit about the history of the country Yemen, how they were invaded for their treasures etc. and I know that as a girl, I would never want to live there.