In 2008, 10-year-old Nujood Ali shocked the world when she went to a court in Sanaa and asked a judge for a divorce.
After a highly publicized trial, she was granted one. She became a heroine to those trying to raise awareness about Yemen, where more than half of all young girls are married before age 18, according to Human Rights Watch.
In 2009, Yemen's parliament passed legislation raising the minimum age of marriage to 17. But conservative parliamentarians argued the bill violated Islamic law, which does not stipulate a minimum age of marriage, and the bill was never signed. Activist groups and politicians are still trying change the law, but more than 100 leading religious clerics have said restricting the age of marriage is "un-Islamic."...
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