Embarrass Us

A ten-year old girl embarrassed her family and her village.

She objected to being raped.

Nujood Ali is a young girl in Yemen. In 2008 she was ten years old when her father married her off to a lecherous man in his 30's. Her father worried for her safety in a land where some village elders, the wise men of the community, considered rape an inconsequential crime, an act easily rectified by marrying the child to the rapist. Nujood's father had already had one daughter go through this terror and didn't want to see it happen again. So her father married her to an old man, who proceeded to rape her....oh, sorry, have sex with her....night after night. Amazingly, Nujood, after several months, escaped to a nearby city where judges actually listened to her, and granted her a divorce.

I am not sure what is more striking, that Nujood escaped or that the judges listened to her. The judges actually listened and granted her a divorce. There is hope for men, maybe. Though I pray to the gods, Women, don't let up, don't acquiesce, don't be silent, don't be submissive. Our species won't survive if you do.

Some of the men in her family are embarrassed by all the attention. Why couldn't she just suck it up, take the rape and act like a good girl.

Nujood has much attention thanks to many strong women in her life, not the least of whom is Delphine Minoui, who helped Nujood write about her young life. With some luck, she may grace us with a long life.

"I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced"

Embarrassment may be our only salvation.

George Clooney is banking on embarrassment preventing the Sudan from descending into civil war, if not another genocide. He and John Prendergast and others have raised almost a million dollars to hire satellites in the sky to watch the troops live, in action, and broadcast the feed immediately for the world to see.

www.satsentinel.org

Sadly, people who hate other people aren't usually embarrassed by their hatred. In fact, publicizing it often fuels their resolve.

It leaves me embarrassed for us.