I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorce Part 8

6. Were you surprised when one of Nujood's primary oppressors turned out to be a woman? Nujood's mother-in-law is a strong personality who treats the young girl harshly and fails to come to her defense on her wedding night. How does this play, paradoxically, into the idea of Yemen as a highly patriarchal society? Do you see any similarity, for example, between the mother-in-law's behavior and the fact that in some African societies, it is the women who enforce the practice of female circ.u.mcision?

7. How do you interpret the behavior of Mona, not only in her attempts to protect Nujood, but in her difficult relationship with her older sister, Jamila?

8. What enables Shada to take up Nujood's cause so quickly and effectively? How does Shada, whom Nujood calls her "second mother," open up Nujood's world? Who else teaches Nujood about what a "real" family can be like?

9. The urban elites Nujood encounters in the courtroom and at the Yemen Times lead very different lives from those of Nujood and the country people of Yemen. How are these "enlightened" people actually disconnected from the rest of their society? For example, Nujood tells us several times that child marriage is common in Yemen, so why did the judges seem so shocked by Nujood's tender age? Do you think they were unaware of their society's problem with early marriage, or were they simply blind to the real-life consequences for girls like Nujood? Was there something special about Nujood that prompted the judges to help her, or was she simply the first girl who had come to them asking for a divorce?

10. Shada and Nujood chose the less "elitist" option for Nujood's schooling. Do you think Nujood made the right decision--to stay in Yemen for her education? Do you think she will become a lawyer and help other girls like herself, as she says she hopes to do? Closer to home, Nu-jood talks about her protective feelings toward her sisters Mona and Haifa, and even toward her big brother Fares. Do you think Nujood will be able to protect her siblings? What might stand in her way?

11. How has the international publicity surrounding the divorce affected Nujood's family and community? Has it enlightened her relatives and neighbors? Or do you think it may have caused dissension within the family and alienated them from their own society?

12. Khat plays a small but sinister role in Nujood's story. Khat is illegal in the United States, but some people in immigrant communities compare it to coffee and support its important traditional role in social situations. U.S. authorities counter that it is more like cocaine than coffee. After reading this book, what effect do you think khat has on its users and on Yemen in general? Do you feel that it contributed to Nujood's father's problems? If so, how? How do you think its use and effects might compare to social drugs in the United States? And most important, what does it tell us about any society that devotes so much of its valuable resources to tuning out from itself, so to speak?

The Girls World Communication Center (GWCC), a nongovernmental organization based in Sana'a, recently launched a new program called ENTELAK. This program helps girls who have been forced to leave school and those who are young victims of early marriage to continue their educations.

Local GWCC members a.s.sist the girls in their studies, helping them to secure a good future. They also lead campaigns to raise awareness among the girls' families and communities about the importance of educating women.

Founded in 1998, GWCC was the first language center in Yemen catering exclusively to girls. Its programs have since expanded to include skills and leadership training, scholarships, and networking opportunities. Supporters include the British Council, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), and the Glamour Women of the Year Fund. If you wish to make a donation, you can access the website at http://www.yldf.org/ or contact [email protected]

Translation copyright (c) 2010 by Nujood Ali and Delphine Minoui Reading Group Guide copyright (c) 2010 by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.

All right reserved.

Published in the United States by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

www.crownpublishing.com Three Rivers Press and the Tugboat design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Originally published in France as Moi Nojoud, 10 Ans, Divorcee by Michel Lafon Publishing, Paris, in 2009. Copyright (c) 2009 by Editions Michel Lafon.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ali, Nujood.

[Moi Nojoud, 10 ans, divorcee. English]

I am Nujood, age 10 and divorced / Nujood Ali, with Delphine Minoui;