VOA标准英语2010年-In Yemen, 12-year-old Girl Finally Get

Sally al-Sahabi, 12, and her father enter the police station, hoping that having her husband arrested will pressure him into granting her a divorce

In Yemen, it is legal and common for young girls to marry fully-grown men. But a growing activist¹ movement trying to abolish the practice won a small victory Saturday, when 12-year-old Sally al-Sahabi was granted a divorce from her 26-year-old husband.

 

Sally's little brother held some of the many television mics in the packed, sweltering courthouse Saturday. Activists² and journalists crowded around the table where a judge questioned her and her husband, Nabil al-Marshahi. After four months of begging her husband and petitioning human rights groups, Sally was finally getting her divorce.

Anti-child-bride activists looked jubilant when the judge pronounced the couple divorced. But Shadda Nasser, Sally's lawyer later said that the only reason the divorce went through was because Nabil had requested it. Sally was beaten and raped³ as a 10-year-old bride, but her December 2009 petition for divorce had failed.

Nasser says this divorce is a win for a growing movement in Yemen to end the practice of early marriage. A law that would make 17 the minimum age for marriage in Yemen has been languishing⁴ in parliamentary committees for over a year now, and is expected to be voted on again in the coming weeks.

"I am very happy because Sally, now she is free. And I am happy because I have new evidence for the parliament and President Saleh to look again for this law, and to help all the children in Yemen," said the lawyer.

Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and his ruling party support the law. There is a considerable amount of international pressure for it to get it passed. Even though it won a majority of votes in parliament last year, it still faces powerful opposition⁵ from leading sheiks, who call the measure un-Islamic, and a bow to Western cultural imperialism⁶.

Early this week, hundreds of women demonstrated in Yemen's capital, demanding the law be passed. In late February, about 1,000 children marched in front parliament, carrying signs that said, "Our future is in your hands," and wearing T-shirts that said "No to early marriage." The children presented a petition with 60,000 signatures in support of the law.

Nujood Ali, now 11, divorced her 30-year-old husband last year using a similar strategy as Sally. Both husbands were thrown in jail on trumped-up charges by sympathetic authorities, and released after they promised to file for divorce.

Nujood, who regularly appears at anti-child marriage rallies, says when she grows up, she wants to be a lawyer to help other little girls escape her fate. She and Sally have been featured in international news. But Nujood says most of Yemen's child brides still suffer behind closed doors and black veils.
 

1 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

2 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

4 languishing   

a. 衰弱下去的

参考例句：

• He is languishing for home. 他苦思家乡。
• How long will she go on languishing for her red-haired boy? 为想见到她的红头发的儿子，她还将为此烦恼多久呢？

5 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

6 imperialism   

n.帝国主义，帝国主义政策

参考例句：

• They held the imperialism in contempt.他们鄙视帝国主义。
• Imperialism has not been able to subjugate China.帝国主义不能征服中国。