Iraq Nominates Escaped Islamic State Sex Slave for Nobel Peace Prize

Reuters
Reuters

The Iraqi government has nominated Yazidi Nadia Murad Basee Taha, who was abused as a sex slave by the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), for the Nobel Peace Prize.

“We are proud of nominating this Iraqi girl to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and we ask the public opinion and associated organizations to support her because she deserves to win,” stated officials.

They added: “She is the symbol of women’s struggle against the dark forces aiming to degrade women. Nadia talked about the plight of Yezidi women abducted by ISIS, and she asked the international community to rescue a record number of 3,400 Yezidi girls and women from the hands of ISIS.”

Kurdish journalist Hiwa Osman established a Facebook page to persuade the organization to grant her the award in late December.

The Facebook page gained over 5,000 followers. The Twitter hashtag #NobelPrize4Nadia also took off.

In December, Taha described to the United Nations the horrific ordeal she endured while under Islamic State captivity.

“Rape was used to destroy women and girls and to guarantee that these women could never lead a normal life again,” she declared.

She explained:

Along the way, they humiliated us. They touched us and violated us. They took us to Mosul with more than 150 other Yazidi families. In a building, there were thousands of Yazidi families and children who were exchanged as gifts. One of these people came up to me. He wanted to take me. I looked down at the floor. I was absolutely petrified. When I looked up, I saw a huge man. He looked like a monster.

I cried. I cried out, I said “I’m too young and you’re huge”. He hit me. He kicked me and beat me. And a few minutes later, another man came up to me. I still was looking at the floor. I saw that he was a little bit smaller. I begged him. I implored him for him to take me. I was incredibly scared of the first man.

The man who took me asked me to change religion. I refused. Then, he asked for my hand in marriage, so to speak. That night he beat me. He asked me to take my clothes off. He put me in a room with the guards and then they proceeded to commit their crime until I fainted.

“I implore you, get rid of Daesh [ISIS] completely,” she begged the council when she finished her speech.

Yazidi activists released a video that shows ISIS tearing apart families and abducting the females to be their sex slaves only a few days before Taha’s speech.

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