How Nadia Murad became the reluctant champion of Yazidi suffering and resilience
Murad has traveled to more than two dozen countries to tell her story of being an ISIS captive.
(The Christian Science Monitor) It was perhaps her last chance for escape. Weeks earlier, militants from the self-described Islamic State fighters had murdered Nadia Murad’s family and taken her captive. Along with other young Yazidi women, she was transported to Mosul, in northern Iraq. She was beaten and raped, then passed as human bounty among the militants.
Murad, 21 years old at the time, had already attempted escape once, through an open window. She was quickly caught and gang-raped as punishment. Now her latest captor was telling her he was going to take her to Syria and sell her to another fighter. Somehow, she summoned the strength to try fleeing again.
When he left the house unguarded, she put on the garments that covered her face and body and slipped quietly out into the street. Nearby was a mosque where ISIS fighters often went to pray. She instinctively turned her back to it and began walking in the opposite direction. She desperately needed help. But knocking on the wrong door could send her right back to unimaginable suffering. When she came to an area where the houses were dilapidated, she decided to take a chance, reasoning that the militants would have commandeered nicer dwellings. She tapped on a door.
