I’m continuously surprised by both the courage of the human spirit, and by the atrocious things that man can do to his fellow man–or in this case, woman.

About a month and a half ago, the LA Times was among the media outlets that reported a story about a girl named Nujood Ali.

Her impoverished parents had married her off to a man more than three times her age, who beat her and forced her to have sex, she explained. When she told her father and mother that she wanted out of the marriage, they refused to help. So an aunt provided her with bus money to travel to court and seek a divorce.

The ten-year-old sat on a bench in a busy courtroom until her case was heard. The judge ultimately granted her a divorce, and a prominent female lawyer paid the fine the court awarded to the husband.

Yemeni law sets the age of consent at 15. But tribal customs and interpretations of Islam often trump the law in this country of 23 million. A 2006 study conducted by Sana University reported that 52% of girls were married by 18.

I’m astounded. 52% of girls are married by the age of 18. That’s child abuse on a wide scale. The judge in Nujood’s case had it right; he asked her ‘husband’ if he could “find no other woman in all of Yemen to marry.”

The little girl is a hero, both to her family, and to the larger community in Yemen that is fighting the practice of marrying off underage girls. Her courage is remarkable. Other young girls are now following in her footsteps. It won’t happen over night, but one person standing up is sometimes all that is needed to spark change.

You can check out the organizations working on Children’s Rights in Yemen here. You can also view the Convention on the Rights of the Child there, or at the UNICEF website.

Additionally, you can check out more information about Children’s Rights issues in Yemen at the UNICEF page here.

Read the rest of the article by the LA times here.

More information on Children’s Right as well as follow-up stories are found in the Important Links tab above under “Children’s Rights.”