10/07/2018 Iraq (International Christian Concern) – Nadia Murad, a young Yazidi woman who was held captive by ISIS as a sex slave for 3 months, has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Since her escape, she has become a human rights activist calling for an end to human trafficking and for a tougher international stance against rape as a weapon of war. She is the first Iraqi to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Systematic sexual violence against religious minorities is a defining feature of the Islamic State. Many of the women that ISIS captured when they swept across northern Iraq remain missing, their status unknown. In other cases, family members have been able to locate their missing loved one but lack the funds needed to rescue the women.
ISIS’s attempt to institutionalize rape against religious minorities has left irreversible trauma. Iraq lacks a structure of justice and accountability which enables the militants to easily blend back into the societies which they had terrorized. There have been many examples of the victims of ISIS recognizing their abuser. There is much fear that unless these issues are addressed, then history will soon repeat itself.
For interviews with Claire Evans, ICC’s Regional Manager, please contact Olivia Miller, Communications Coordinator: press@persecution.org.
