Nadia Murad

February 11, 2022

Yazidi Human Rights Advocate and Women’s Rights Activist

Nadia Murad is a powerful advocate for women in conflict and survivors of wartime sexual violence. She is the UN Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking and a winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize.  

Nadia Murad was born in a small farming Village in northern Iraq. In August of 2014 the terrorist group ISIS, launched a genocide against the Yazidi people. Those unable to escape suffered crimes against humanity and genocide at the hands of ISIS. Most men were killed and buried in mass unmarked graves and most women and children were given to ISIS soldiers or sold as sex slaves and domestic servants. After escaping ISIS captivity, Murad became a vocal advocate for the rights of the Yazidi people and justice for the crimes that they suffered. 

In 2018, Murad launched Nadia’s Initiative – a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending the use of women and girls as weapons of war and to redevelopment of the Yazidi homeland. She is also a contributor to the Murad Code – a global code of conduct for collecting information from survivors of wartime sexual violence. Murad is author of The Last Girl– a memoir about her life and survival. Nadia Murad is a human rights defender and activist for women and all victims of war, terrorism, and genocide. 

Adapted from Carrie Booth Walling, Human Rights and Justice for All: Demanding Dignity in the United States and Around the World (Routledge 2022).