Yazidi Women Who Escaped ISIS Win EU’s Human Rights Prize

Islamic State systematically killed, captured and enslaved thousands of Yazidi inhabitants.

Nadia Murad Basee Taha, United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking, waves while being recognised by the Speaker in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, 25 October 2016. (Photo: Reuters)

The European Parliament awarded its Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought on Thursday to two Iraqi Yazidi women who were held as sex slaves by Islamic State militants and now campaign for human rights.

Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar were among thousands of women and girls abducted, tortured and sexually abused by Islamic State fighters after the militants rounded up Yazidis in the village of Kocho, near Sinjar in northwest Iraq, in 2014.

The Yazidi are a religious sect whose beliefs combine elements of several ancient Middle Eastern religions. Islamic State considers them devil-worshippers.

This is a very symbolic and significant decision to support these two survivors who came to Europe as refugees and found shelter in the European Union.

Martin Schulz, European Parliament president

He added the prize meant the parliament was now supporting them in their fight not only for dignity but to give testimony as witnesses to atrocities. The prize is 50,000 euros ($54,595), with an award ceremony scheduled for December.

Islamic State insurgents overran Sinjar in August 2014, systematically killing, capturing and enslaving thousands of Yazidi inhabitants.

Murad, now aged 23, was held by IS in Mosul but escaped her captors in November 2014, reached a refugee camp and eventually made her way to Germany. She has since become active as an advocate for the Yazidis, and refugee and women’s rights in general, as well as campaigning against human trafficking.

She has briefed the UN Security Council on the problem of human trafficking and last month launched Nadia's Initiative to help victims of genocide. She has called for the massacre of Yazidis to be recognised as genocide.

Bashar, 18, was captured in the same raid as Murad and also kept as a sex slave by IS. She escaped in March but was badly disfigured and blinded in one eye when a land mine went off as she fled. Two companions were killed.

She now lives in Germany, where she has undergone treatment for her wounds, and works as an advocate for the Yazidis.