Nadia Murad Basee Taha, born on 10 March 1993, is an Iraqi-born Yazidi human rights activist based in Germany. In 2014, during the Yazidi genocide by the Islamic State, she was abducted from her hometown of Kocho in Iraq. After losing most of her family, Murad was held as an Islamic State sex slave for three months alongside thousands of other Yazidi women and girls.
Murad founded Nadia's Initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping women and children victimized by genocide, mass atrocities, and human trafficking to heal and rebuild their lives and communities. In 2018, she and Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. She is the first Iraqi and Yazidi Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In 2016, Murad was appointed the first Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Iraq
