Nadia Murad, The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity and my Fight Against Islamic State
Image: Ken Opprann, Nobel Media 2018
Nadia Murad won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 as a leader in the struggle against sexual violence in war.
Nadia’s autobiography The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity and my Fight Against Islamic State written with Jenna Krajeski tells of her abduction in August 2014 when ISIS attacked her Yazidi village, Kocho in Sinjar, northern Iraq. The militants murdered nearly all of the men and women too old to be valuable for sex trafficking, including Nadia’s six brothers and mother. Nadia was trafficked, along with her sisters, and became a sex slave for a judge in Mosul.
Nadia eventually escaped and arrived as a refugee in Germany in 2015. Nadia has shown unimaginable bravery, and continues to do so by sharing her story with the world. The inspiration for the title ‘The Last Girl’ came from Nadia’s mission ‘to be the last girl with a story like mine’.
“My story, told honestly and matter-of-factly, is the best weapon I have against terrorism, and I plan on using it until those terrorists are put on trial. There is still so much that needs to be done.”
You can watch Nadia’s 2016 speech at the UN below:
When accepting her Nobel Prize Naidia condemned the international community for its failure to bring justice for the victims;
“Thank you very much for this honour, but the fact remains that the only prize in the world that can restore our dignity is justice and the prosecution of criminals.”
Anna Della Subin writes in the New York Times,
“As a story that hasn’t yet ended, “The Last Girl” is difficult to process. It is a call to action, but as it places Murad’s tragedy in the larger narrative of Iraqi history and American intervention, it leaves the reader with urgent, incendiary questions: What have we done, and what can we do?”
The 25th November marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against women. The UN is has launched it’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign, a multi-year effort aimed at preventing and eliminating violence against women and girls, which will focus on the issue of rape as a specific form of harm committed against women and girls in times of peace or war.
The 2019 theme for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women is ‘Orange the World: Generation Equality Stands Against Rape’. This year's International Day will mark the launch of 16 days of activism that will conclude on 10 December 2019, which is International Human Rights Day.”
Twitter: @NadiaMuradBasee
Instagram: @nadiamuradtaha
You can buy The Last Girl here.
