Go here (http://www.glamour.com/about/divorce)

And read THIS... (http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/bl ... -a-ni.html)

Glamour Women of the Year: A Nine-Year-Old Child Bride's Tale (You Must Hear This!)

Tuesday, 11/11/2008 at 10:40 AM Comments (17) Last night, Glamour held an incredible evening to honor our Women of the Year. (Read about them here.) It was a star-studded night, and I felt like Carrie Bradshaw from Sex & the City as I sat in a red-velvet opera box at Carnegie Hall (next to Petra, who was wearing a Lauren-Conrad-inspired hairstyle!). Beth and Tracey have already talked about tear-jerking moments and fashion favorites, and today I'll tell you more about the evening (it was SERIOUSLY AMAZING, you will die)--but first, I want to reveal: What was the most incredible moment of the entire night?

Despite seeing stars like Natalie Portman, Kate Bosworth and Tyra Banks, the absolute best moment of the night came when a 10-year-old girl from Yemen stepped onto the stage.

Nujood Mohammed Ali was born into a poverty-stricken family, and her parents, unable to clothe and feed her, married her off to a 30-year-old man when she was just 9 years old. The man promised not to sleep with her until she was older--but he broke his promise on their wedding night when he abused and raped her. This abuse (physical, emotional and sexual) continued for the next two months. Can you imagine how terrified she must have been?

"She was beaten, and nights were a hellish game of tag, with Nujood running from room to room to escape sex with her husband; he raped her anyway," says this incredible Glamour story.

After two months, this brave (and scared) little girl decided that enough was enough. She took a bus and taxi to the courthouse and sat there until a judge noticed her. She told him that she wanted a divorce. Luckily, the story of her plight reached female human rights lawyer Shada Nasser, who came to her rescue. “I didn’t believe it,” Nasser said, and she asked why the girl needed a divorce. Nujood’s reply: “I hate the night."

Nasser and Nujood worked together, and Nujood, 10, is now divorced--and living with her family and going back to school. (She wants to be a lawyer.) "[The experience] made me strong,” she says. “Now my life is sweet as candy."

Nujood's case has inspired other child brides to come forward. Her story is incredibly inspirational--and made my eyes tear up and my heart swell. Read the full story here and also see more about the Women of the Year 2008. How amazing is she?

Meanwhile, THIS (http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2008/ ... 16-ap.html) is ILLEGAL in the Middle East.

Dubai beach sex couple escape jail

By BARBARA SURK - Associated Press Writer

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A British couple convicted of having sex on a Dubai beach had their prison sentences suspended by an appeals court on Tuesday in a case that exposed a cultural divide in this glitzy Gulf boomtown.

Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors were convicted and sentenced to three months in prison in October for having sex outside of marriage, public indecency and drunkenness.

The Dubai Court of Appeals upheld the guilty verdict but dropped their prison sentences — though it ruled the couple must still be deported from the United Arab Emirates and pay a fine of about $272 each.

“This is a good result,” said Hassan Matter, the couple’s Dubai-based lawyer. “This means the law in Dubai is just and shows the judge has a good mind and a good heart.”

The two Britons, who are both in their 30s, met at an all-you-can-drink champagne brunch before they were arrested in July. Both previously admitted they were drunk but denied having sex.

The case revealed a fault line between Dubai’s expatriate majority and the city’s conservative Arab, Muslim minority.

Public displays of affection are illegal in Dubai — a city that has worked hard to cultivate an image as a party hot spot for Western tourists and businesses in the Middle East but has a conservative legal code based on Islamic laws and tribal rules.

The couple’s trial prompted at least one Dubai five-star hotel chain to issue an advisory for Western tourists on appropriate behavior.

The Jumeirah Group cautioned guests at the Medinat Jumeirah hotel that “drunken behavior, especially outside licensed premises in the hotel, is punished severely.” It also recommended tourists be discreet with displays of affection in public.

“Anything more than a peck on the cheek could offend those around you and even possibly lead to police involvement,” the advisory said.

The Middle East is one FUCKED UP place.

You see, these folks are living proof that Ishmael FUCKED CAMELS!

Your comments are welcome...

I think that marrying off a 9 year old girl, especially marrying a 9 year old girl to some guy 30 years old is about as sick as it gets. Too bad poverty made her parents so desperate they felt they had no other choice. It was probably total anguish for her parents to feel they had to do that.

I hope she gets to spend the rest of her childhood growing up in a home with lots of love and security. Childhood should be a wonderful free and happy time, not one of terror and trauma.

"

I Worship Women (imported) wrote: Thu Nov 27, 2008 4:49 pm Childhood should be a wonderful free and happy time, not one of terror and trauma.

" - Amen to that! Screwed up kids leads usually to screwed up adults..what a vicious cycle! Thankfully one young girl was fortunate enough to escape...and my heart goes to those that have not! Anyplace where heterosexual carnal relations with animals is legal whereas homosexual relations with animals warrants the death sentence is indeed one messed up place! Nine year old girls or animals..this is sick! Bleh

Ron

It’s not only 9 year-old girls who need to worry about being married off to older men. A couple of years ago I ran across the quote below. Behruz is an Iranian journalist (now in exile) and an ex-Moslem. Because of his political agenda, his statement can't be taken completely on his word, but there is no reason to doubt the basic accuracy. It fits too well with other, well-documented (though earlier), accounts from elsewhere in the Moslem world.

Some years before the revolution, when I was traveling the world as a journalist and correspondent for the Iranian radio and television, I had a job for few days in the United Arab Emirates . I met a great man of knowledge and dignity, who later Khomeini ordered his execution, in a wedding. This was not a normal wedding and such weddings unusually take place secretly. But this one was an exceptional one. The sheikh was marrying a boy; a young boy aged eleven. Some one felt we need an explanation. He told us that it is normal for important sheikhs to have a few boys in their Harem. Of course the boys were castrated before. And to make the problem better understood, he recited two verses from Koran.

“And there shall wait on them young boys of their own, as fair as virgin pearl. " 52:24

And

“They shall be attended by boys graced with eternal youth who to the beholders eyes will seem like sprinkle pearls." 76:19

Recently some event happened in Egypt . The Islamic court is prosecuting thirty young homosexuals as homosexuality is prohibited in Islam. One wonders, if it is prohibited, then why Allah promises the believers boys? Reason is simple. In Islam homosexuality is prohibited but pedophilia and pederasty are not. In another words, the sex between two consenting adults is a sin but between an adult and a child is okay.

http://www.faithfreedom.org/Testimonials/behrouz.htm

Hmm. That does seem to be a bit backward! Pedos are ok but same relations between adults is forbidden!

I wonder what the harem boys think of their circumstances. While it may be abhorrent to our culture and ways of thinking, it may be acceptable and what is to be expected in their culture and a bit of comfort to them in terms of security and social norms. Nonetheless, it does seem to be downright WRONG!!

I am curious, do the harem boys have an elevated social standing in such circumstances and perhaps a "better" life in terms of food, shelter and education?

In a culture that has no respect for human life they would be lucky to live until adulthood.

Jesus, that upsets me. The more that I hear about these things the more that I want to see the destruction of all of America's nuclear weapons...by using them in the Middle East...

JesusA (imported) wrote: Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:50 pm One wonders, if it is prohibited, then why Allah promises the believers boys? Reason is simple. In Islam homosexuality is prohibited but pedophilia and pederasty are not. In another words, the sex between two consenting adults is a sin but between an adult and a child is okay.

http://www.faithfreedom.org/Testimonials/behrouz.htm

I Worship Women (imported) wrote: Thu Nov 27, 2008 4:49 pm I think that marrying off a 9 year old girl, especially marrying a 9 year old girl to some guy 30 years old is about as sick as it gets. Too bad poverty made her parents so desperate they felt they had no other choice. It was probably total anguish for her parents to feel they had to do that.

Look up Mohammed's second wife Aisha in the Koran sometime... Or in Wikipedia if you want the quick Cliff-Notes version. She was 6 or 7 when Mohammed was betrothed to her, and 9 when they consummated.

Since Islam's main Prophet saw nothing wrong with an adult man (himself) totally getting it on with a 9 year old girl (Aisha), is it any surprise that followers of Islam would do the same?

I guess what the Media keeps saying is true -- Islam really is a "Religion of PIECE", as in piece of pre-pubescent (male or female) child's ass!!!

I am just glad this article had a happy ending. The child was able to get away from the abuse. I just hope that, should she decide to marry in the future when she is old enough, she will be able to forget these two months of painful hell. That it hasn't scarred her sexually for life... I am also glad to see that things are starting to turn around in that part of the world (ie: the fact that the judge got her out of it, and that she is going to become a lawyer) and hope that things continue to move in a more civilized direction.

Dear Prudence,

Do not think for one millisecond that Islam is the only religion used to abuse children. It is happening in America right under our noses...

Click here for article... (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/n ... yndication =rss)

Originally published Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at 6:45 PM

Attorney: 8 new charges filed against jailed Alamo

Jailed evangelist Tony Alamo faces eight new federal charges after his arrest for allegedly taking children across state lines for sex, his lawyer said Tuesday.

By JON GAMBRELL

Associated Press Writer

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. —

Jailed evangelist Tony Alamo faces eight new federal charges after his arrest for allegedly taking children across state lines for sex, his lawyer said Tuesday.

John Wesley Hall Jr. said the new charges are similar to those Alamo already faces - violations of the Mann Act, a federal law that bans carrying women or girls across state lines for "prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose." Hall said the sealed indictment includes the original two charges.

It's "the same kind of stuff, just more of it," Hall said.

Debbie Groom, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office for the Western District of Arkansas, declined to specify the charges included in the new indictment. She said a federal judge would have to decide on whether to unseal the charges for public viewing.

The charges, filed Monday, come after Alamo testified in a closed court hearing that he "spiritually" married and divorced multiple women who continued to live with him, Hall said.

Alamo never married the women in a legal sense, Hall said, though Alamo said he provided what "some people would have to do in the form of alimony in the traditional divorce."

"He said he doesn't take up with more than one woman at a time, and I said, 'That's not polygamy,'" the lawyer said. "When he moves onto another female, he stops having sex with the prior ones, but he feels obligated through the Bible to support them."

Alamo also acknowledged he knew that several members of his congregation were "spanked" over disciplinary matters, Hall said.

State child welfare officials have seized 26 children associated with the Alamo ministries since September, citing stories of alleged beatings and sexual abuse.

In a court filing, Alamo pleaded not guilty to the new charges and waived an arraignment hearing.

Arkansas State Police and federal agents raided Alamo's compound at Fouke on Sept. 20, searching for evidence that children there had been molested or filmed having sex. Five days later, FBI agents arrested the evangelist as he left a hotel in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Since establishing his ministries in Arkansas, Alamo has been a controversial and flamboyant figure, with former President Clinton once likening him to "Roy Orbison on speed." The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, describes the ministry as a cult that rails against homosexuals, Roman Catholics and the government.

Alamo was convicted of tax-related charges in 1994 and served four years in prison after the Internal Revenue Service said he owed the government $7.9 million. Prosecutors in that case argued that Alamo was a flight risk and a polygamist who preyed on married women and girls in his congregation.

Alamo faces trial in February on the 10 federal charges. Hall said he may ask a judge for more time to prepare a defense because of the new charges.

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company

More is found by clicking here... (http://www.4029tv.com/family/15803481/detail.html)

Standoff With Polygamist Sect Eases

200 Women, Children Removed From Polygamist Compound Earlier

POSTED: 5:24 pm CDT April 5, 2008

UPDATED: 6:58 am CDT April 6, 2008

Standoff With Polygamist Sect Eases

ELDORADO, Texas -- Authorities in West Texas have imposed a gag order on what's happening in their standoff with members of a polygamist sect.

But there was word Sunday morning the confrontation was easing.

Law officers have been trying to contact a 16-year-old girl who reported she had been abused. Acting on a search warrant, authorities raided the compound, run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, this past week.

Members of the sect had refused to let them search the eight-story high temple at the heart of the 1,700-acre retreat. Now, they have apparently allowed a search, which was carried out peacefully Saturday night.

The move comes hours after authorities said they were "preparing for the worst," according to a published report from the San Angelo Standard-Times' Web site.

Ambulances that had been sent to the scene have now left.

It's not clear if officials have interviewed the girl. They think she is married to 50-year-old Dale Barlow and gave birth to a baby last year when she was 15. Texas law bars marriage for girls younger than 16.

State welfare officials on Friday removed 52 girls from the compound. Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for Child Protective Services, said another 131 residents were removed overnight. By Saturday afternoon, 137 children and 46 women were being housed and interviewed at local community centers.

"They seem to be doing fine," Meisner told The Associated Press. Investigators remained inside the compound looking for additional children, she said.

Officials in Texas declined to comment Saturday on whether they had found Barlow, citing the gag order, but the man's probation officer told The Salt Lake Tribune that he was in Arizona.

"He said the authorities had called him (in Colorado City, Ariz.) and some girl had accused him of assaulting her and he didn't even know who she was," said Bill Loader, a probation officer in Arizona.

Barlow was sentenced to jail time last year after pleading no contest to conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for three years while he is on probation.

His lawyer in that case, Bruce Griffen, said he had not spoken to Barlow in a year.

The search warrant instructed officers to look for marriage records or other evidence linking her to the man and the baby. The warrant authorized the seizure of computer drives, CDs, DVDs or photos.

Those inside the retreat did not respond to requests for comment.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints broke away from the Mormon church after the latter disavowed polygamy more than a century ago.

The compound sits down a narrow paved road and behind a hill that shields it almost entirely from view in town. Only the 80-foot-high, gleaming white temple can be seen on the horizon. Authorities blocked access to the gate, keeping onlookers miles away.

The 1,700-acre property had been an exotic game ranch. It is surrounded by dusty, wind-swept land where sheep are raised and mohair produced.

Eldorado is a two-stoplight town of fewer than 2,000 people and located nearly 200 miles northwest of San Antonio. It consists of a cluster of government buildings, a couple churches and a few blocks of houses.

State officials said they did not know how many people lived at the retreat, although local officials estimated about 150 two years ago.

The FLDS has been led by Warren Jeffs since his father died in 2002. In November, Jeffs was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison in Utah for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who wed her cousin in an arranged marriage in 2001.

In Arizona, Jeffs is charged as an accomplice with four counts each of incest and sexual conduct with a minor stemming from two arranged marriages between teenage girls and their older male relatives. He is jailed in Kingman, Ariz., awaiting trial.

Had enough yet?

Hell, who needs religion? It can be done WITHOUT religion...

CLICK HERE... (http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/AmericanFamil ... 852&page=1)

Teen Sex Slave Trade Hits Home

Sexual Predators Are Selling Young American Women Into Prostitution

By Ann Pleshette Murphy and Jennifer Allen

Jan. 30, 2007

Teen prostitutes, not even old enough to drive, walk the streets of our cities selling their bodies every night. They call it "the life," but what they're forced into is sexual slavery.

"I got sold," says Sara, who asked that ABC hide her face and change her name for this story. "Like I was an animal."

Mistreated, lonely and living in a foster home in a rough neighborhood, Sara was lured into "the life" by a man who claimed to love her. She was only 13.

"He told me things like no guy had ever told me," Sara says. "So I felt like a $100 million."

The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that between 100,000 and 3 million American kids under age 18 are involved in prostitution and they're often targeted by sexual predators.

"There are sexual predators out there specifically looking for vulnerable kids so that they can sell them," says Rachel Lloyd, founder of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, in New York City, an advocacy group that provides services to sexually exploited girls from age 12 to 21.

Child Sexual Exploitation on the Rise

The average age of a child when he or she is first sexually exploited is 11, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Even if the child is a somewhat willing participant, according to U.S. and international agreements, children can never consent to prostitution: it is always exploitation.

The cities with the highest incidence of child sexual exploitation, according to the FBI, are Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Louis, Tampa, and Washington, D.C. As many as 40 percent of all forced prostitutes are juveniles, according to the FBI.

"There are girls that are literally kidnapped off the street [and] thrown into a car," Lloyd says. "There are pimps who pose as model agency scouts."

The promise of a glamorous modeling career is what Miya says enticed her to leave her job at a busy shopping mall with a couple who reportedly lured several girls into prostitution in the same manner.

"He asked if it would be out of place if he said I was pretty," Miya says. "It was a compliment. He said he was a model agent...looking for models in the area. It seemed interesting."

According to Miya she was moved from Arizona to California and forced into the brutal world of sexual exploitation.

"They move them to evade detection," says Ernie Allen, president and chief executive officer of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in Alexandria, Va. "In many ways children in the 21st century have become a commodity for sale and marketing, primarily for sexual purposes."

Pimps are criminals, but often depicted in a glamorous way in movies like "Hustle and Flow," in music videos, and in national magazines.

For example, in the Dec. 16, 2006 issue of Rolling Stone magazine, rapper Snoop Dogg was featured on the cover with the headline, "At Home With America's Most Lovable Pimp."

"I think in the last couple years we've seen a real increase in the glorification of pimp culture," Lloyd says. "Girls growing up now, and boys too, are beginning to see this as cute and sexy or glamorous and not really understanding the realities of the sex industry."

Unfortunately, Sara learned the realities firsthand.

"What you see in the movies, what you see on TV -- it's not like that," Sara says. "They don't tell you the part about the rapes. They don't tell you about getting beat up. They don't tell you that you might die every day."

And popular culture also doesn't tell young girls that, once they are forced into the scene, there is almost no escape from sex trafficking.

So what made Sara choose to stay with her pimp in such a painful situation?

"People tell you, 'When I'm done with you, that's when you're done,' so you can't just up and leave," Sara says. "Do you know how many times girls have tried to up and leave? Girls have got killed just trying to up and leave."

The mental and physical pain of sexual exploitation, according to experts, is in part what keeps victims tethered to their pimps.

"The kids are not involved in this terrible crime as a result of choice," Allen says. "They are involved because of fear, because of force, and because of actual physical and psychological harm.

"These kids are beaten down psychologically, they are harmed physically, there are threats made against them and their loved ones or their families. [They] become ashamed of who they are and what they are doing and feel like they can't go back to the life they came from. This is not something these kids do by choice."

Many young girls like Sara enter a relationship with a pimp who poses as a caring friend or boyfriend.

"Some of [the girls] are snatched off the streets, but the vast majority are lured into this enterprise," Allen says. "These kids go willingly with these guys and only later discover that they can't walk away."

Even those charged with protecting her let her down, according to Sara.

"I never got arrested because my pimp used to pay off cops, or I would end up having sex with the cops so that I wouldn't get locked up."

After many attempts, she escaped from her pimp and got help from GEMS. Now, almost five years later, she still worries about being discovered and dragged back into prostitution. But she is also moving ahead, one step at a time.

"I'm proud of myself because at least I can go to sleep every night," Sara says. "At least I don't have to worry about being raped or being killed. I actually can go through a normal life without fear."

How to Protect Your Child

Discuss the importance of not trusting strangers, but most importantly, stay connected to your children. Sexual predators pursue disenfranchised girls and boys who need a friend.

"They target kids who appear to be vulnerable," Allen says. "Most kids have some problem in their lives [and] these guys hone in on that vulnerability. In most cases first they're the kids' friend -- the person who 'gets' them, who empathizes with them. These girls think the pimps are their romantic interest, that they love them and care about them. They get them into prostitution, then these kids lose the ability to walk away."

What happens to exploited children like Sara or Miya is similar to the case of Shawn Hornbeck, the Missouri boy rescued recently after behind held captive for four years. These kids were held by adults who convinced them that there is no way out and that no one cares what happens to them.

What Hornbeck endured is still a mystery, but authorities know that child prostitutes are subjected to constant sexual abuse. Yet public opinion often paints these girls as criminals. The first step towards ending the misery for the exploited is to recognize them for what they are: victims.

These girls come from all walks of life and socioeconomic backgrounds. The common denominator is that they are vulnerable to predators. In fact, an estimated 80 to 95 percent of child prostitutes have a history of sexual abuse.

President Bush reauthorized the Trafficking Victims Protection Law in January 2006, strengthening the campaign against worldwide trafficking in people, especially the effort to combat the sex trade in the United States. This is headway in an effort to recognize domestic sex trafficking victims as legitimate crime victims in need of social services, and not just juvenile delinquent bad girls.

The Innocence Lost Initiative, a collaboration between the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, has netted hundreds of arrests in both state and federal courts of pimps who prey on children.

For more information, visit www.gems-girls.org, www.missingkids.com, www.ecpat.net.

Yes, it is going on under our noses and nothing is done. Even if it is the money involved is used to pay attorneys to get these slimeballs off.

Where is the ethics? How in the hell could somebody even think of trying to get these people back on the streets?

NEVER underestimate the svengali-like power these ruthless thugs have over children... religion is just a tool... there are others...

A-1 (imported) wrote: Sat Nov 29, 2008 10:30 pm Dear Prudence,

Do not think for one millisecond that Islam is the only religion used to abuse children. It is happening in America right under our noses...

True, and I am well aware of that. There are many who will use Religion, or any other social tool, to force others into this.

But the point I was trying to make was that Islam blatantly supports this practice IN IT'S HOLY BOOK!!!

Christianity does not... The Bible does mention younger girls being married -- but not below the age of puberty. There is one scripture in the Mosaic Laws (Old Testament) that says if a girl's father has not chosen a husband for her by age 12 then she is free to chose one herself. And another in Song of Solomon that talks about protecting a girl "too young for breasts" from men who ask to marry her.

I can't comment on the Mormon Holy Books because I have never read/studied them. I've heard that they support polligamy -- but I have not heard if they also support brides under the age of puberty.