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Nadia Murad, 21, a Yazidi woman who escaped Daesh militants in 2014 is in Yeravan to attend the Second Global Forum Against the Crime of Genocide. Nadia Murad was among more than 5,000 Yazidi women taken captive when Isis swept through the group’s territories in northern Iraq.  She shared the hardships suffered while leaving Mosul, a major concentration point of Daesh terrorists.
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“I was in Mosul and was looking for opportunities to leave the town. I knew there were no chances to survive. The whole city was controlled by the terrorists. I found a house where I took Islamic clothes, disguised my face and escaped. I got assistance from some people and had the luck to cross the border. Later I was transferred to a Yezidi refugee cam and joined my brother, with a follow-up trip to Germany.”

The woman said she lost her six brothers, who were killed, her mother and brother’s daughter who died while trying to leave Mosul.

She said only two sisters and three brothers of her survived, while over 3 thousands Yezidi women and girls are still in Mosul under ISIS captivity and sexual enslavement.
Nadia has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to defend the rights of those enslaved, although she is more concerned with the fate of her compatriots.

“I am mostly interested in the saving my people,” she said.

“In 2014 Isis fighters rounded up all Yazidis in Iraq as they saw them as “nonbelievers”. They wanted to kill men and take the younger women into slavery. I am myself a Yezidi girl from Shingal. Ten Thousand Yazidis were enslaved and slaughtered, others died of hard conditions. Our women were traded among the fighters as commodities or rewards kept sexual enslavement. There was even a market for enslaved women within Iraqi and Syrian black markets. No major actions have been taken to free Yezidis from ISIS and more than 3 thousand women and girls are under captivation. I a represent their voice,” Nadia stressed.

Nadia informed that she does her best to raise awareness of the plight of the Iraqi and Syrian Yazidis a reason she visited Armenian and urge more action to protect refugees from the conflict with ISIS.
“I am happy for being here, surrounded by you, as you will better understand our pain as having suffered a Genocide 100 years ago. And I think If the Armenian Genocide were recognized then, no Genocide would occur in Shingal,” said Nadia Murad.