Nadia Murad Basee Taha ( born 1993 in Kojo, Sinjar,Iraq) is an Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist who lives in Germany. In 2014 she was kidnapped from her hometown Kojo and held by the Islamic State for three months. In 2018, she and Denis Mukwege were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict”. She is the first Iraqi to be awarded a Nobel prize. Murad is the founder of Nadia’s Initiative, an organization dedicated to “helping women and children victimized by genocide, mass atrocities, and human trafficking to heal and rebuild their lives and communities”(from Wikipedia)
“This is what it means to be Iraqi under ISIS, I thought. We are homeless. Living at checkpoints until we live at refugee camps.” ― Nadia Murad
“I don’t know why God spared me,” he said. “But I know I need to use my life for good.” ― Nadia Murad
“It’s not enough for ISIS to be destroyed militarily. In order for the world to see who they are, they need to be held accountable in international courts on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.” ― Nadia Murad
“Kocho was destroyed but, still, it felt like home. Even though barely anything was left of my home, as soon as I walked through those doors I was desperate to stay. I wanted to sweep up the rubble and ashes and try to rebuild the house.” ― Nadia Murad
“Still, most of the escaped sabaya were tight-lipped about their time with ISIS, as I had been at first, and I understood why. It was their tragedy and their right not to tell anyone.” ― Nadia Murad
“We had no ambition for more land or power, and nothing in the religion commands us to conquer non-Yazidis and spread our faith.” ― Nadia Murad
“I would say somewhat bitterly, “Look at how great life is in Kurdistan, while we are living in these poor villages,” and my mother would scold me. “They deserve good lives, Nadia,” she would say. “They went through a genocide under Saddam, you know.” ― Nadia Murad
“I want to be the last girl in the world with a story like mine.” ― Nadia Murad
“Our faith is in our actions. We welcome strangers into our homes, give money and food to those who have none, and sit with the body of a loved one before burial. Even being a good student, or kind to your spouse, is an act equal to prayer. Things that keep us alive and allow poor people to help others, like simple bread, are holy.” ― Nadia Murad
“We are grateful to Germany for taking us in when we needed it most and making it possible for me to do my work as a human-rights activist and for Dimal to try to make a new life for herself, but I long to go back to Iraq.” ― Nadia Murad
“It was an incredibly painful trip. My village had been destroyed by the militants who had occupied it; our house was rubble. But I begged the people who went with me—among them my friend Murad Ismael, the cofounder of Yazda—to let me stay even just a few minutes more.” ― Nadia Murad
“My heart is in Kocho and, like most Yazidis, I will not feel complete until I can go home for good.” ― Nadia Murad
