Nadia Murad was 21 years old when the Islamic State besieged her village in northern Iraq. The 2014 siege of Kocho lasted two weeks, with Yazidi elders frantically trying to reason with militants even as the latter carried out systematic killings throughout the Sinjar district. After two weeks of agonizing uncertainty, the militants gathered the villagers and executed nearly all the men and older women. Murad lost her mother and six brothers in the massacre, and was subsequently taken by the militants, along with hundreds of other young women and girls to be sold and used as sex slaves.
After three brutal months in captivity, sold multiple times by various ISIS militants, Nadia managed to escape with the help of a Sunni Arab man, Nasser, and his family – pretending to be his wife as they fled to Iraqi Kurdistan.
Since her escape, Murad has been vocal about the plight of the Yazidi community. With the help of human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, Murad took her case to the United Nations, insisting that perpetrators of sexual war crimes be brought to justice as individuals.
We will be making flatbread and dips to accompany our discussion of the book.
