Nada Al-Ahdal: 11-Year-Old Yemeni Girl Fleeing Forced Marriage Speaks Out [Video]

Nada Al-Ahdal, an 11-year-old Yemeni girl fleeing a forced marriage, speaks directly to the camera in a new viral video posted to YouTube on Sunday. Over one million people have already watched, and you can too by hitting that button up top.

Be warned. This little girl is angry and makes suicidal threats as a result of her desire to flee the arranged marriage. The video is definitely upsetting.

According to the translation, Nada Al-Ahdal said:

“It’s true that I ran away from my family. I can’t live with them anymore. Enough. I want to go live with my uncle.

“What about the innocence of childhood? What have the children done wrong? Why do you marry them off like that?”

Nada Al-Ahdal isn’t just 11. She’s a young 11, without the exposure to reality TV or boybands or the other influences that force American tweens to mature too young.

This child looks more like she’s nine than 11. At her age, many American girls think of themselves as almost-teens. But Nada Al-Ahdal considers herself a child and frankly calls herself a child. She’s still at an age where the thought of marriage and husbands is distasteful.

And this 11-year-old Yemeni girl gets increasingly upset as she talks about why she ran away to flee the forced marriage:

“Some children decided to throw themselves into the sea. They’re dead now…

“I would have had no life, no education. Don’t they have any compassion?”

By the end of the extended rant, she is threatening to kill herself too if she is forced into the arranged marriage.

According to Nada Al-Ahdal’s report, her aunt was married at 14 to a man who beat her with chains. The teen killed herself after a year by setting herself on fire.

This is a gut-wrenching one, folks. But it’s worth watching to bring attention not just to Nada Al-Ahdal, and not just one 11-year-old Yemeni girl, but to all girls forced into arranged marriages.

[Yemen lighthouse still photo by Jerrye and Roy Klotz MD via Wikimedia]