Nadia Murad
Facts
© Nobel Media AB. Photo: K. Opprann
Nadia Murad
The Nobel Peace Prize 2018
Born: 1993, Kojo, Iraq
Prize motivation: "for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict."
Prize share: 1/2
Life
Nadia Murad was born into a farming family in Kojo, Iraq. She belongs to the Yazidi ethnic and religious minority. When she was 19 years old, the Islamic State attacked her village and killed 600 Yazidi men, including several of her family members. Murad and other young women were taken prisoner and subjected to beatings and rape. She managed to escape, however, and make her way to a refugee camp. There she was offered the opportunity to move to Germany, where she now lives.
Work
Sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict constitutes both a war crime and a threat to peace and security. Nadia Murad is a member of the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq, and in 2014 the Islamic State (IS) launched a brutal attack on her home village. Several hundred people were massacred, and girls and young women were abducted and held as sex slaves. While a captive of the IS, Nadia Murad was repeatedly subjected to rape and other abuses. After three months she managed to flee. She now works to help women and children who are victims of abuse and human trafficking.
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