Child Marriage: A Global Crisis Through Nojoom’s Eyes

• Khadija Arshad
• Oct 26, 2024
• 3 min read

Updated: Oct 27, 2024

Child marriage thrives today in various parts of the world due to ignorance, poverty, and deeply rooted gender inequality. This violation of human rights takes away their childhoods and their future from young girls out there. Failure to act leads to repetition of the same situation.

The film “I Am Nojoom, Age 10 and Divorced” paints a vivid and harrowing picture of this global issue, humanizing the statistics that often feel overwhelming. Nojoom, a 10-year-old Yemeni girl, courageously approaches a judge to demand a divorce from a marriage she never wanted—a marriage arranged to prevent a family scandal. Nojoom’s story reflects the reality of millions of girls globally who are forced into marriage, often before they even understand what marriage entails.

Every day girls like Nojoom suffer the repercussions of early marriage in African, Asian, and Middle Eastern countries. For girls in Niger, 76 percent are forced into marriage before they reach the age of 18 years. The numbers are similarly shocking in other countries: These include the Central African Republic at 68%, Chad at 67%, Yemen at 32%, and Iraq at 24%. Forced marriage is a global issue and every year 12 million underage girls are forced into marriage, 12 million childhoods ruined, 12 million girls’ future cut short.

The psychological, physical and the social effects of early marriage can be observed in the “I am Nojoom”. As it would be in the case of the film’s main character, these girls are usually left with lifelong effects. The child brides are expected to produce families, before their bodies are physiologically ready to do so, resulting in complicated and fatal pregnancies. These marriages also make girls vulnerable to domestic violence and mental health problems as well as stripping them of any form of freedom or decision making abilities. This is the emotional journey that Nojoom goes through and it is the journey that many girls go through and remain voiceless.

Nojoom’s fight for divorce highlights a crucial issue: there are many established countries where child marriage is still legal or when legal, not enforced properly. For instance, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child claims that all children under 18 should be protected, but culture triumphs. As is the case with most other countries, legal changes are inadequate in Yemen because of social limitations; where families, poor and helpless or constrained by tradition, go round the law to make their daughters wed.

It is so much apparent when viewing the courtroom scenes, which represent the fight for justice in many parts of the world today. As it is the case with Nojoom, millions of girls are forced into such marriages without any legal protection. Cultures that endorse these marriages usually think they are protecting their daughters from other worse situations such as prostitution or delinquency. But the reality, as shown in the “I Am Nojoom”, these choices only perpetuate cycles of poor, oppressed, and abused females.

The way Nojoom stands for her rights is the beginning of change and should be encouraged. What is required now are effective laws which would follow Nojoom’s case and penalise not only those who marry off children but those who organise these unions as well. However, legal reform has to be complemented by measures that treat the causes – poverty, gender injustice, and illiteracy.

Governments, schools, and civil society must join force to fight child marriage just as the movie “I Am Nojoom” demonstrated the need for education in transforming the life of young girls. It is important for programs to provide economic incentives for families in order to diminish the factor that makes child marriage a viable economic choice. There is also need to undertake educational campaigns in order to fight against the cultural practices which support this practice.

Toward a More Equitable Future

Ultimately, every girl, like Nojoom, should have the right to determine her own future: to select who to wed, whether to wed, and when to wed, to control her own body, and whether and when to give birth. “I Am Nojoom, Age 10 and Divorced” is not only a movie, but a plea, an expose of what is lost when girls’ right is denied.

Ending child marriage is not a matter of protecting human rights of children but a matter of working towards equality in society. Nojoom and all the other girls who are able to make their own choices contribute to making the dreams of equality and justice come true for everyone.

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