Inside The Middle East

SHOW #56

Hosted by Paula Newton from Yemen

YEMENI CHILD BRIDE FIGHTS FOR A DIVORCE

10-year-old Nujood Ali's impoverished parents married her to a man more than three times her age. When she told her parents that her husband beat her and forced her to have sex and that she wanted out of the marriage, they refused to help. Nujood then made her own way to the courthouse to seek a divorce. Within days of that court appearance, Nujood's story and the plight of child brides in Yemen made international headlines.  Publicity surrounding her case has prompted calls to raise the country's legal age, and has opened the door for several more child brides to come forward. Paula Newton reports from Yemen.

GOODWILL FUND FOR IRAQIS

Two decades of war and international sanctions have left Iraqi hospitals and doctors woefully behind the times in terms of training and resources. Basic medicines are often in short supply. With medical care so limited, treatment is essentially unavailable for cancer patients. A humanitarian effort across Iraq's border is providing a tiny bit of hope.  The King Hussein Cancer Center in Jordan is the only lifeline for so many Iraqi cancer patients desperate for care. Every month about two-dozen Iraqi families arrive at the center. Most have little or no money - and are too late to be helped. Now the Jordanian royal family is helping to foot the bill. Arwa Damon travels to Amman for details.

CAMP LIFE SEEN THROUGH CHILDREN'S EYES

"Lahza" is the Arabic word for glimpse. It is an appropriate title for an innovative photography project which documents moments of life in the 12 official Palestinian refugee camps scattered throughout Lebanon.  The non-governmental organization Zakira placed disposable cameras in the hands of children living in those camps, in the hopes of highlighting conditions of Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon. The glimpses of camp life are seen through the eyes of 500 Palestinian children ages 6 to 12, who were asked to take disposable point-and-shoot cameras out into the field.  The pictures reflect all areas of camp life, from family portraits, shots of friends playing, and gun-toting young fighters. Our look at the project is narrated by one of the program's main activists.