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Kids like this make me think that maybe, as a world, we have a chance to become a decent place.
Yemeni girl from YouTube wants education, not marriage - CNN.com
That is a very smart and stunningly courageous person. That is our hope for the future.
"Would it make you happy to marry me off?" asks Nada Al-Ahdal. In the nearly two-and-a-half-minute video, which was uploaded to YouTube and quickly went viral, Nada accuses her parents of trying to get her married off in exchange for money. She explains how she doesn't want to be one of Yemen's child brides.
"It's common more in the poorer communities," Aleryani said. "There is a proverb, a Yemeni saying: 'Marry an 8-year-old girl, she's guaranteed,' which means the 8-year-old girl is surely a virgin. It's a disgusting saying and inhumane, but it's said by everyone and it's very well-known."
"Things changed a lot after the revolution, and now people are more aware of the problem," she said. "Before we used to feel like there's no hope -- you can't do anything about it. Those conservative parties used to be stronger than us, but lately they are not."
CNN found Nada a few weeks after the video's release, and she was living with her uncle in Sanaa. She said it wasn't just her immediate family that she ran away from in her hometown of Hodeida. "I ran away from marriage," she said. "I ran away from ignorance. I ran away from being bought and sold."
Yemeni girl from YouTube wants education, not marriage - CNN.com
That is a very smart and stunningly courageous person. That is our hope for the future.