Nadia Murad Basee Taha

We know Nadia Murad only for her Noble Peace price laureateship in 2018. But there are much more behind the laureateship and her personal life. 

She was born as Nadia Murad Basee Taha in Kojo, Iraq in the year 1993. Although she's an Iraqi by nationality; she now lives in Germany. 

She was born into a farming family in Kojo, Iraq. She belongs to the Yazidi ethnic and religious minority. Yazidis are indigenous to Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

Yazidism is a faith followed by the Yazidis. They believe in one God who created the world and entrusted it into the care of seven Holy beings, known as Angels. Melek Taus is the leader of the Angels and has authority over the world. Yazidis are called Miletê Tawûsê Melek (the nation of Melek Taus).

When she was just 19, the Islamic State (IS) attacked her village and killed 600 Yazidi men, including several of her family members. Murad and other young women were taken prisoners and subjected to beatings and rape. She managed to escape and made her way to a refugee camp after three months of repeated torture and rape. An Iraqi of the Islamic State had helped her escape. She was offered the opportunity to move to Germany from the refugee camp. 

Even Yazidi women and children were tortured and women were sold as sex slaves online and the money was used for the funding of the Islamic State. How cruel.

Her works include the propagation of the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict that constitutes both a war crime and a threat to peace and security.

She has written a book named "The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State", it illustrates the ordeals she experienced. It was later translated into German and the same was released as "Eu Serei A Última" in the same year. 

She founded "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".

From a captive, even after getting frustrated several times, most part of her life, to be precise, she leads a meaningful life now as a human rights activist. Again, suicide is not the ultimate solution!

In 2018, she and Denis Mukwege were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict". She is the first Iraqi and Yazidi to be awarded a Nobel Prize.

While we live peacefully in this country war crimes, armed conflict, sexual violence are being committed by some terrorist organizations even in this 21st century. The least we can do, let's hope and pray that all these come to an end soon. 

Thank You...

Cheers...