May be that interpretation holds good when a bride wants to become independent or to marry another person. But here, for all rationale and common sense, it’s obvious that the poor 8 year old has been wronged, so it will only be an injustice if she’s demanded to pay. Somehow state will have to intervene and pay in such cases(its a good thing that there are donors and human right activists) for the time being and should try to make some rule that such injustices don’t recur.

Rulings concerned with divorce are quite complex, but generally if it’s the wife who seeks the divorce, she’s expected to return her dowry.

But indeed, it’s wonderful that she’s been rescued from that hell.

I think in Quran its said, that dowry given once must not be got back even if its a heap of gold. So why should an estranged wife be forced to repay it?? After all the ‘mahar’ is like maintenance funds in case marriage gets cancelled!

Thank God, that this girl got back her childhood!

Today, Nojoud and her eight year-old sister Hifa are able to go to school thanks to the financial donations and moral support of human right activists and donors.

“We have chosen a public school despite generous donations from many charities and donors to support Nojoud in going back to school and starting her new life,” said Shatha Nasser, Nojoud’s lawyer.

“We took into consideration that Nojoud comes from a very poor family, with miserable living conditions, and that putting her into an environment too different from her own might create a shock,” Nasser explained, when asked why Nojoud would not be going to a private school.

Firstly thank you for your comment.
Secondly, what I am saying is that although I agree that many (too many) predominantly Muslim countries are affected by this terrible and unacceptable problem, I don’t think it will be solved by attacking directly the laws of those countries. The root of the problem is not in Islam or its interpretations. Nicaragua is plagued by the same problem: a horrific 43.3% of girls are married before the age of 18. There are no Muslims in Nicaragua.
The solution of the problem is in first pumping money into those poorest country, develop a free and accessible education system at the same time, then we will be able to see results in laws being amended and laws being enforced.
Attacking directly the laws won’t help as they won’t be enforced. These countries are also in the top tier of the list of corrupted countries.
I was not referring to Saudi Arabia or Iran, which are not part of the 20 worst countries. I was referring to only the twenty worst countries,(from the worst down) i.e. Niger, Chad, BanglaDesh, Mali Guinea, Central African Rep., Nepal, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, India, Ethiopia, Liberia, Yemen, Cameroon, Eritrea, Malawi, Nicaragua, Nigeria and Zambia.
I believe the problems in Saudi Arabia and Iran are different from those in Yemen. For Saudi Arabia and Iran, yes, we can talk about change of laws and interpretations of Islam. In both cases, however, I believe the solution would go through empowerment of women. Until we get goverments ready to empower women, the problem won’t be solved. There has been recent progress in the Gulf states so we can hope the wind will bring this progress to Saudi Arabia, but it won’t happen over night. I still think the problems in those 20 worst countries can be addressed more urgently though.

I believe RAWA over you and evidently there weren’t enough Muslim extremists in Afghanistan which is why the U.S. had to recruit foreign fighters from all around the world.

RAWA [Revolutionary Association of Afghan Women] has pointed out that there were several democratic-minded groups the U.S. and other countries could have supported if they had wanted to drive out the Communists and help restore independence to Afghanistan. Why did these countries instead back the fundamentalist Mujaheddin? RAWA member Sajeda told Said lt magazine in August that pro-democracy groups would have refused to act as “puppets” for other countries, and would have made it difficult for those countries to “maintain their economic and political interests in Afghanistan.”

from
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Women/RevolAfghanWomen.html

path wrote, “I’ve heard the hundreds of thousands stuff but that’s just crap and not supportable by any means other than what you’d like to believe as it supports your opinion. Killing any noncombatant is a sad deal but overinflating casualties for political purpose is bs.”

That could be said about any statistics regarding any genocide, including the Holocaust.

path wrote, “There are many anti war American reporters that would like nothing less than to report something like illegal activity/chem weapons. This conflict is not exactly under reported.”

Much of the mainstream media (left and right) leaves out the close relationship between the U.S. before the wars. That Barry Lindo video I linked to was shown in Europe, but not in the Untied States.

path wrote, “What public hearing are you refering to?”

Did you watch the Barry Lindo video? This information appears after 16 minutes into the video.