A Voice for Yazidi Women

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Nadia Murad

Most women in the U.S. take their freedom for granted. Not so the Yazidi women in northern Iraq. They live in fear of being captured by ISIS or other extremist groups, raped, beaten and kept enslaved. Nadia Murad was a young girl when she was first captured from her village by ISIS fighters and saw her family murdered. She managed to escape and reach safety with the help of a kind family.

Now, three years later, she has become an advocate for her people. After finding refuge in Germany and telling her story, she is making the world aware of the atrocities her people are enduring and demanding that ISIS be held accountable for its crimes against the Yazidis.

She is tired of telling of her experience and does not seek publicity. But her story has helped awaken the UN, the United States and others to the suffering of her people. This year Iraq is allowing independent investigators to gather evidence of ISIS crimes, the first step in holding the group accountable. for the genocide.

Three years ago, Nadia was a happy 21-year-old looking forward to begin her first year of secondary school  She wanted to open a beauty salon after graduating. When the militants arrived in her village they killed the men and older women and took her and her sisters captive, victims of ISIS's plan to "enslave Yazidi women, doctinate the children, and massacre the rest of the population." Thousands of Yazidis women and children are still held in bondage, wondering what will happen to them, wondering if anyone cares. Nadia hopes that her voice will keep nagging at the world's conscience.

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