Morning dew
In the beauty of the yemeni desert, a little girl opens her eyes. Her name is Nada: "Morning Dew". She spends her life playing the usual games of a child her age, studying at school and helping with everyday chores in her family of nine. Although thay are poor, Nada is cheerful, happy child. Bur onde day, the relatively carefree existence comes to a sudden end when she hears a telephone conversation between her uncle and father. They are discussing wedding ! She cannot beleive her ears ! Marriage would mean the end of her childhood, her education, her trust in her father and mother... and perhaps even her life - she remembers how her yound aunt was beaten to death by her husband. So the 11-year-old firmly refuses to obey her parents. "Go on then ! Force me to marry and I'll kill myself !"
In the end, Nada overcame tribal tradition through sheer willpower and force of character. Other Yemeni girls are not so lucky. Many are married against their will before they reach puberty and condemned to a life of drudgery... When they do not succumb to domestic violence and sexual assaults.
Nada was not the first little Yemeni girl to face thaht danger and she would not be the last. Shocked by her appeal for help, the international media and human rights groups focused on the forced marriage of children in Yemen. According to a report published by the Yemeni Ministry of Social Affairs in 2010, more than a quarter of the country's daughters are married before the age of 15.
Author:
Nada al-ahdal is a young Yemeni. When she was 11, her parents decided to marry her off, but she refused to accept. With the help of her uncle, she made a video and posted it on the internet. It was watched all over the world.
Publication date: March 2015
Pages: 176
Rights sold: Poland
