Alongside Denis Mukwege, Nadia Murad has been awarded the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. 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 Sinjar 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.
3-15th of Aug, 2014 our village was surrounded by ISIS. we begged Iraqi gov & Kurdistan 2rescue us, Yazidis around the world asked international community to help us, but no1 did. It was possible 2save Yazidi women & children. It’s possible now 2recuse Yazidi women from captivity
— Nadia Murad (@NadiaMuradBasee) August 6, 2018
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 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 neighborhoods where 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 awareness of sexual violence.
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