NADIA MURAD

 

NADIA MURAD (b. 1993)

Nadia Murad was born into a farming family in Kojo, Iraq. She belongs to the Yazidi ethnic and religious minority.

On August 2014, Murad’s village of Kawjū (Kocho) was captured by ISIL. The men, including six of Murad’s brothers, were massacred. Some older women, including Murad’s mother, were also killed. The rest of the women, including Murad, were taken to Mosul, Iraq, the largest city held by ISIL at the time, to be marketed as sex slaves. Murad was bought and sold several times before escaping in November 2014.

After escaping, she began her life as an activist.

On 16 December 2015, Murad spoke to the United Nations Security Council about human trafficking and conflict. This was the first time the Council was ever briefed on human trafficking. She spread awareness about human trafficking and refugees, despite the dangers of speaking out.

In 2016 the UN appointed her Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking.

She wrote and in 2017 she published a memoir on her capture and escape, The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State, and founded Nadia’s Initiative, an organization advocating for the rights of women and minorities and assisting in redeveloping minority communities facing crisis.

In 2018, she shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Denis Mukwege, another activist who fights against sexual violence as a weapon of war.

Nadia Murad is the founder of Nadia's Initiative, an organization dedicated to "helping women and children victimized by genocide, mass atrocities, and human trafficking to heal and rebuild their lives and communities". She now works to help women and children who are victims of abuse and human trafficking.