Nadia Murad is Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2018


Alongside Denis Mukwege, Nadia Murad has just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2010. This was earned based on their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict. Such conflict was experienced by Nadia Murad.

The 25-year old shared her story of how she was captured by ISIS, alongside other girls when she was 21 years old.

She grew up in a village called Kocho, situated in the Sinja region of Northern Iraq where they practiced the Yazidi ethno religion. The militants gave them one option: to convert to Islam, or die. All the men in the village, including her six brothers were killed for refusing Islam.

Her mother was also killed before Nadia was captured as a sex slave, also called “sabaya” by one of the militants. She and other girls were taken to Mosul and were brutally beaten, molested, raped and burnt with cigarettes. Women in Mosul celebrated the ISIS and supported their brutality.


Nadia writes:

I don’t understand how anyone could stand by while thousands of Yazidis are sold into sexual slavery and raped until their  bodies break. There is no joy…

One day, Nadia escaped by climbing a fence at night, walking alone to find neighbourhoods she could hide.

Until it was safe for her, she moved to Germany where she became one of the beneficiaries of a refugee programme of the Government of Bader-Württemberg, Germany. This became her new home.

She wrote the book The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State to recount her experiences and create the awareness of sexual violence.

 

 





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