Small Wars Journal

Once Enslaved by ISIS, Nadia Murad is Co-Recipient of Nobel Peace Prize

Fri, 10/05/2018 - 1:57pm

Once Enslaved by ISIS, Nadia Murad is Co-Recipient of Nobel Peace Prize by Sasha Ingber – National Public Radio

In 2014, Nadia Murad, a member of the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq, was taken captive by ISIS members and sexually enslaved for three months before escaping. In 2016, at the age of 23, she was named the U.N.'s first Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking. Today, she became the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Dr. Denis Mukwege, a gynecologist from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who treats victims of rape.

The pair were named for their work to highlight and eliminate the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war, according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Murad was honored for her refusal "to remain silent and ashamed of the abuses to which they have been subjected," the committee said. At age 25, she is the second-youngest peace prize recipient; Malala Yousafzai was the youngest at age 17.

NPR profiled Murad in August. This story has been updated...

Read on.