Nadia Murad Basee Taha was born in 1993 in the village of Kawjū, Sinjar District, Iraq, to a family of Yazīdī farmers. Nadia is a human rights activist, campaigning to rebuild communities in crisis and advocating globally for survivors of sexual violence.
a story like mine
As a child, Nadia dreamed of becoming a history teacher, or of opening a beauty salon in her village. She wanted to live near her family in Sinjar.
On 15 August 2014, Islamic State (IS) militants came to Nadia’s village and began to massacre the Yazīdīs living there. They murdered most of the men and older women, including Nadia’s six brothers and her mother, and swept their bodies into mass graves.
The younger women, including Nadia, were trafficked to Mosul and sold into sexual slavery. Nadia was raped, tortured and bartered for among militants for three months before escaping when a door was left unlocked. She fled into Kurdistan by posing as the wife of a Sunni man, who risked his own safety and that of his family’s to escort her out of IS territory to a refugee camp. There she was offered the opportunity to move to the German state of Baden-Württemberg under an emergency asylum programme set up in 2014 by Kurdish-German psychologist, Jan Ilhan Kizilhan.
In her memoirs, Nadia writes, “I want to be the last girl in the world with a story like mine.”
MY FIGHT
In late 2015, almost two years after her abduction, Nadia and other Yazīdī women were encouraged to address the UN Security Council by Kizilhan. She has since become a tireless advocate for the Yazīdī community and for victims of sexual violence in conflict zones.
In 2016, Nadia became the first UN Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking in order to draw attention to the suffering of the estimated 3,400 Yazīdī women and children still held captive by IS, and was awarded the Council of Europe Václav Havel Award for Human Rights and the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
In 2018, Nadia was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Dr Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynaecologist who specialises in the treatment of women who have been raped. Nadia was the second-youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate in history. The youngest ever was Malala Yousafzai, in 2014.
Nadia is now a member of France’s Gender Advisory Council, a role in which she calls on G7 states to adopt legislation protecting and promoting women’s rights. She and her charity, Nadia’s Initiative, have also been instrumental in two UN Security Council Resolutions: Resolution 2467, which expands the UN’s commitments to end sexual violence in conflict, and Resolution 2379, which established the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL.
I DO NOT SEEK MORE SYMPATHY
It is estimated that IS’ genocide included the enslavement of nearly 7,000 Yazīdīs and the displacement of more than 400,000 Yazīdīs to camps in northern Iraq. 350,000 Yazīdīs are estimated as still living in refugee camps, lacking adequate access to food, water, electricity, education, health care or opportunities for work.
In July 2019, several survivors of persecution based on religion or belief addressed the US’ second Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom. Nadia was among their number, and came with a five-point action plan to address the challenges faced by the Yazīdīs.
First, conflict over local governance must be resolved.
Second, Nadia emphasised the need to focus on ensuring the long-term stability of the region by investing in reconstruction and sustainable development initiatives, pointing out that without international funding targeted at development, stability in the region cannot be achieved.
Third, better integration of religious minorities must be made within Iraq’s security forces, to enable minorities to have a hand in their own security.
Fourth, justice must be served for the genocide the Yazīdīs have undergone.
Finally, it must be realised that by failing to assist the communities targeted for annihilation, we are complicit in their eradication.
You can learn more about Nadia’s work and the strength her advocacy requires on the websites for her charities, Nadia’s Initiative and the Global Fund for Survivors of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, from her memoir The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity and My Fight Against the Islamic State and from Alexandria Bombach’s documentary On Her Shoulders.
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