Top 35 Nujood Ali Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Compared to dreams, reality can be truly cruel. But it can also come up with beautiful surprises.”

— Nujood Ali

2. “I’m a simple village girl who has always obeyed the orders of my father and brothers. Since forever, I have learned to say yes to everything. Today I have decided to say no.”

— Nujood Ali

3. “I was alone, so alone. No one to confide in, no one to talk to.”

— Nujood Ali

4. “Marriage was invented to make girls miserable. I will never get married again, not ever again.”

— Nujood Ali

5. “A divorce party – that’s really better than a wedding party.”

— Nujood Ali

6. “I would never have imagined that my wedding day would arrive so quickly. And anyway, I didn’t have a really clear idea of what marriage was.”

— Nujood Ali

7. “Life is really weird, I thought. It’s not just bad people who spread misery – even pretty things can be hurtful. So hard to understand.”

— Nujood Ali

8. “We were living rather happily, to the rhythm of the sun. It was a simple life, but peaceful, without electricity or running water.”

— Nujood Ali

9. “Sometimes you even wonder who makes the law in this strange land, where many girls and boys beg in the streets instead of going to school. Yemen.”

— Nujood Ali

10. “I’ve had enough of these grown-up quarrels that make children suffer. Stop! In.”

— Nujood Ali

11. “My mind was made up: I’d do whatever I had to. I was ready to climb mountains to keep from finding myself lying on that mat again, night after night, all alone against that monster.”

— Nujood Ali

12. “It’s so simple to be happy, when you’re among friends.”

— Nujood Ali

13. “This woman has a strength of character that astounds me. She doesn’t need to wave her arms all around to express her feelings; the look in her eyes reveals all the contempt she feels for him. That look is enough. I’ve learned a lot from her, these past few days.”

— Nujood Ali

14. “Inside of me I have been soiled, contaminated – it’s as if part of myself has been stolen from me.”

— Nujood Ali

15. “Not only was he hurting me, but my family, my own family, was defending him. All that for a question of – what was it? Honor.”

— Nujood Ali

16. “I pretend to smile back. But deep down I feel frozen solid, unable to move, with the strange feeling that my feet are nailed to the ground.”

— Nujood Ali

17. “When I grow up, I’ll be a lawyer, like Shada, to defend other little girls like me.”

— Nujood Ali

18. “It is a mysterious place where men never appear in public without curved daggers worn proudly at their waists, while women hide their charms behind thick black veils. It.”

— Nujood Ali

19. “Won’t anyone listen to me, for once? It’s as if I were invisible. No one sees me: I’m too small for them;.”

— Nujood Ali

20. “It was as if her incredible struggle had made her grow up all at once, by casually stealing away the lovely innocence of childhood. She.”

— Nujood Ali

21. “She, on whom life had not smiled, had always shown compassion for those even less well off than she was.”

— Nujood Ali

22. “Perhaps you don’t realize it yet,” adds the judge, “but you’re an exceptional girl.” I.”

— Nujood Ali

23. “I’d love to read their lips to find out what they’re saying, but the niqabs that match their long black robes hide everything except their big, round eyes.”

— Nujood Ali

24. “One February evening in 2008, when I’d just gotten home, Aba told me he had some good news. “Nujood, you are about to be married.”

— Nujood Ali

25. “Besides, neither he nor my mother knew how to read or write, so they didn’t really see any need for their girls to learn, either.”

— Nujood Ali

26. “For her to defend me was a waste of time. I.”

— Nujood Ali

27. “Of what use is a court if it can’t even grant divorces on the spot?”

— Nujood Ali

28. “Grown-ups and their affairs were too complicated for me. After.”

— Nujood Ali

29. “My divorce had opened my eyes about many things, making me more sensitive to the unhappiness of others.”

— Nujood Ali

30. “Each time our purse was empty, she would sell a few of our possessions. Basically, she had given up relying on my father. And.”

— Nujood Ali

31. “She was suffering, and it showed. Fares.”

— Nujood Ali

32. “Perhaps Nujood does not realize this yet, but she has shattered a taboo.”

— Nujood Ali

33. “With him, I finally understood the real meaning of the word cruelty. Days.”

— Nujood Ali

34. “I’ve always wanted to be like a sea turtle so that I could stick my head underwater.”

— Nujood Ali

35. “I lived in permanent fear of more slaps and blows.”

— Nujood Ali

36. “During lulls in the music, they came over to greet me, and I embraced them dutifully. But I couldn’t even pretend to smile. I.”

— Nujood Ali

37. “When I had to leave school last February, I knew how to count to a hundred. Now I want to learn to count to a million! My.”

— Nujood Ali

38. “In Khardji, the village where I was born, women are not taught how to make choices.”

— Nujood Ali