Nadia Murad: Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Voice for Justice

of victims and against sexual violence ever since. I'm a land ververeer, and this is Seneca's one d Women to Hear. We're bringing you one hundred of the world's most inspiring and history making women you need to hear. Nadia Murraud is a survivor. In two thousand and fourteen, when she was nineteen years old, Isis militants carried out a genocide against her Yazedi community, a minority group of five hundred

thousand people in northern Iraq. During the genocide, Isis killed her mother and six of her brothers and half brothers. Nadia was kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery along with six thousand other Yazdi women and girls. She managed to escape and soon after began speaking out about human trafficking and sexual violence. Today, she is working to bring Isis to justice for their genocide against the Yazedi community, and she serves as a u N Goodwill Ambassador for the

Dignity of Survivors of human Trafficking. I sat down with Nadia Murad for a conversation as part of the podcast Seeking Peace, produced by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. Let's listen and learn why Nadia Murad is one of Seneca's on Women to hear. Nadia, you grew up in a Yazii community in the Sinjar district of Iraq. Take our listeners back to your childhood. What was it like growing up in Sinjar? So? I was born and raised in the small village of Koju, south of Saint

Your Mountain in northern Iraq. My family was large and close, as most families were in Kojo and in other villages in South CenTra. We lived a sample life. We were farmers who worked the lott My mother, she was the head of our household and I always looked up to her. She was strong and independent. It was not a common

thing in our community. She worked hard to support my my family, my siblings who were eleven siblings, or she worked hard to to support us, and she is in in large part why I am the person I am today. And then on August the third, two thousand and fourteen, something terrible happened. These are Yazidis taking to the Barons

and John Mountains to escape the Islamic State fighters. After the militants had sees the minority community stronghold i SIS attacked amount Siniar regions, killing and kidnapping thousands of members of your community. Followers of this ancient religious sect made the journey knowing they were likely to find themselves stranded with the clone nothing to survival. You and your loved ones were directly affected by this terrible genocide, and fortunately

you managed to escape. You found refuge in Germany, and sometime later you became United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of human trafficking. What was it that enabled you, after going through so much difficulty, so many horrors, what enabled you to decide to share your experience? You know, I when I decided to share my experience, it wasn't easy, but I did it because I wanted more than anything to seek just for for my community, for my family,

for for my mother. I wanted the world to know what happened to us, and to help our community recover, and to take some steps to make sure that what happened would never happen again in Arab or anywhere else in the world. I am I am grateful that my words have reached so many people around the world. Before that not many people knew who they Easy they were, and now they know, they know what has happened and

what has been done to my community. But unfortunately, like many vulnerable communities, once our story disappears, or once they said I Sis was defeated, the world leaves us behind and my community continues to suffer. As you know, to this day, they still need help. What is the status of the Easily community today? Ices may have been defeated in central but yes, it is continued to feel the

effects of genocide. Six years later, over half of the Easily community in Iraq is still displaced inside their own country. These people survived genocide and displacement, only to be left in camps without the support they need to return to their homelands and rebuild their lives. Six years later, no efforts have been made by either the Iraqi government or the international community to rescue these women and traitor. They

feel the world has forgotten there despite all of this. Yes, it is a return to sing Ja because that comes are not a solution. They are not sustainable and zes. No, they cannot stay in that camps forever. Seneca has one hundred women to hear will be back after the short break. It is estimated that between six and ten thousand Yea Zites were kidnapped, some of them held in captivity for

years and over half a decade. Since the massacre, two to three hundred thousand year Zits remain in camps in northern Iraq as internally displaced persons or i d p s. When the headlines are no longer, people do forget, but you haven't forgotten and your work goes on. You also teamed up with a Mal Clooney to bring justice to the Aziti community. Tell us about your efforts to take Isis to the International Criminal Court and what is happening

in those efforts. Yeah, as you know, I have been working with amal Cloney for the past few years to hold Isis account and I am lucky to call her a friend. I am legal counsel to Nadia and to other Yazdi women and girls who were kidnapped, bought, sold enslaved and raped by ISIS. But it was clear from an early stage that this was going to be a challenge. The world's powers were focused on a military solution and nobody wished to speak about justice, so we fixed on

one imperative. We could not allow the evidence to disappear. Working with Amal and member states at the u N, we were able to help create the United Team, which is working to collect evidence of ISIS crimes. We are trying to build cases against ICEIS perpetrators, survivors of sexual violence, and the Ezdi community would like to see ISIS held accountable in public court. We celebrated the moment four weeks ago when the team, working alongside the Iraqi authorities began

to exhume mass graves and identify the victims remained. This first step in any criminal inquiry was a cathartic moment for many Yezdi families, and we are encouraged to hear that the investigation in Iraq is now fully underway. We want to see countries tried their their foreign nationals and right now only a few of European countries include in Germany, France and Netherlands are holding their foreign nationals account. Many other states have refused to do so or have tried

perpetrators as terrorists. You know, not yet so anguishing to hear about the conditions that you just described and what the city community is still going through. And I know that you have not stopped for a moment trying to help your people. Nay. As initiative, the initiative that you have set up to continue to help your community is something that you are devoting yourself to very very significantly, so not this initiative has been working in Syndra for

the past two years. Our primary focus is to rebuild what us is destroyed. We have rebuilt many schools and farms, healthcare centers, homes, water services and electorate city. We also have projects that empower women, especially survivors, by providing them with tangible support. Something that is very much needed in the region is a new hospital. We are working on building a new hospital now with the support of the

French government and the President mcron. We continue to advocate on behalf of the easily community and survivors of sexual violence. We have worked with the French government to relocate women and children. I also worked with Canada and Australia to to relocate IT serve vers and their families to those countries. You know, it's so inspiring to hear about what nadia Is initiative is doing to understand how critical your work is to continuing to help the community. It's not possible

to do this work, I know without support. Our listeners are hearing you today and hearing how much need there is. How can they support Nadia's initiative. I think they can raise awareness on their platforms and they can do it in their communities and talk about the ez D case because our struggle is it's not over. You can You can read more about what happened to my community in

my book The Last Girl. You can write to your government leaders and ask them to advocate for for e z ds and support organizations who are working with you asides and survivors of sexual violence. You have gone through a great deal personally, but you have taken all of that experience and made a commitment to help your people. You have been resilient, You have been an inspiration, being

informed is critically important. But I also hope, Nadia, that many will step forward to support Nadia's initiative in support of a community of people who have gone through so much and continue to need all of the help and assistance to be able to survive and hopefully, in the future, truly thrive. So thank you so much, Nadia. We really appreciate your being with us today on seeking Peace. Thank you so much. Thank you to you for having me. It was great to be with you. What a remarkable woman.

It's so inspiring to hear her hopes and plans for a better tomorrow. Here are some things I took away from my conversation with Nadia Murraud. First, even when it's painful, it's important to share our stories. That's how we make progress. Nadia was able to talk about her terrible experiences because she had a mission to secure justice for her people against isis. Second in the world wind of the day's news, we can't forget that there are other causes and other

battles going on in other parts of the world. There are communities in crisis like Raqs Yazdi community, and there are survivors of sexual violence who need our help. You can help I support Warning Naughtia's initiative. Go to Natia's initiative dot org and you can learn more about her story in her book The Last Girl, My Story of Captivity and My Fight against the Islamic State. Tune in on Thursday to learn about our next featured woman and discover why she's one of Seneca's on Women to Hear.

Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear is a collaboration between the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio with support from founding partner p And. If you like what you heard on the show, rate and review it on Apple Podcasts, we hope you'll join us for our next episode of one hundred Women to Hear, where we can all listen, learn and get inspired. Have a great day.