The following story was originally published in Women in the World on June 21, 2016.
Nadia Murad, a Yazidi woman from a small village in northern Iraq who at the age of 19 was abducted by ISIS militants and kept for months as a sex slave, testified before Congress on Tuesday. Murad, who escaped in 2014, recounted the horrors she experienced while in ISIS captivity for more than two months, and called on U.S. lawmakers to do more to defeat the terror extremists.
Nadia Murad to U.S.: Establish a safe zone for religious minorities
“Daesh,” Murad said, referring to ISIS by an alternative name, “will not give up their weapons unless we force them to give up their weapons. The Yazidi people cannot wait.” She also called on the U.S. and other nations “to establish a safe and protected zone for Iraqi and Syrian religious minorities,” a strategy repeatedly rejected by President Obama.
A message for the Orlando community
Murad went on to offer condolences to the families of victims killed in the terror attack at an Orlando nightclub that killed 49 and injured dozens more and noted that she wasn’t surprised that the attack took place. “I knew if ISIS were not stopped, they would deliver their crimes everywhere,” she said.
Earlier this year, Murad visited the Women in the World offices in New York City and talked candidly about her experience being held by ISIS and her message for the militants. Watch her interview here.
Read the article originally published in Women in the World here.
