The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Yazidi human rights activist, Nadia Murad, for her efforts to eliminate the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war, The Times of Israel reported Friday. Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege, who treats victims of sexual violence, shared the award with Murad.
Murad, a Yazidi woman from Kocho in the Shingal region in northern Iraq, was tortured and raped by Islamic State militants and later became the face of a global campaign to free the Yazidi people. She managed to escape captivity after three months and chose to speak about her experience. Since that time, Murad has raised global awareness for the genocide committed against her community.
At the age of 23, she was named the UN’s first Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking.
The Islamic State terrorist group invaded the Shingal region on August 3, 2014. According to data from the Kurdistan Ministry of Religious Affairs, 1,193 individuals were slaughtered on the first day of the attack alone. Murad saw six of her brothers killed and her mother executed for being too old to serve as a slave.
Many thousands more were captured and later sold as slaves and servants. More than 1,100 Yazidis, mostly women and young girls, are still missing.
Last year in July, Murad visited Israel for the first time, where she raised awareness for the plight of her people and explained how it relates to Jewish suffering during the Holocaust.
“My visit here today is to ask you to recognize the genocide being committed against my people, in light of our peoples’ common history of genocide,” Murad said in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.
“The Jews and the Yazidis share a common history of genocide that has shaped the identity of our peoples, but we must transform our pain into action,” she said, adding, “I respect how you rebuilt a global Jewish community in the wake of genocide. This is a journey that lies ahead of my community.”
During her stay, Murad also met with Israeli lawmakers and visited Yad Vashem. Addressing staff at the Holocaust museum, Murad said she “always wanted to hear from the people who have been through the same things my people have been through.”
The activist concluded that both Jews and Yazidis have learned the same lesson that for their people to be safe they must “protect themselves by themselves.”
[Photo: Guardian News / YouTube ]