Speaker 1: I wanted the world to know what happened to us,
Speaker 1: and to help our community recover, and to take some
Speaker 1: steps to make sure at what happened would never happen
Speaker 1: again in Iraq or anywhere else in the ward. That
Speaker 1: is Nadia Murad, who was honored with the Nobel Peace
Speaker 1: Prize in two thousand and eighteen. A native of Iraq,
Speaker 1: Nadia was subjected to sexual violence used as a weapon
Speaker 1: of war by ISIS. She has been working on behalf
Speaker 1: of victims and against sexual violence ever since. I'm a
Speaker 1: land ververeer, and this is Seneca's one d Women to Hear.
Speaker 1: We're bringing you one hundred of the world's most inspiring
Speaker 1: and history making women you need to hear. Nadia Murraud
Speaker 1: is a survivor. In two thousand and fourteen, when she
Speaker 1: was nineteen years old, Isis militants carried out a genocide
Speaker 1: against her Yazedi community, a minority group of five hundred
Speaker 1: thousand people in northern Iraq. During the genocide, Isis killed
Speaker 1: her mother and six of her brothers and half brothers.
Speaker 1: Nadia was kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery along with
Speaker 1: six thousand other Yazdi women and girls. She managed to
Speaker 1: escape and soon after began speaking out about human trafficking
Speaker 1: and sexual violence. Today, she is working to bring Isis
Speaker 1: to justice for their genocide against the Yazedi community, and
Speaker 1: she serves as a u N Goodwill Ambassador for the
Speaker 1: Dignity of Survivors of human Trafficking. I sat down with
Speaker 1: Nadia Murad for a conversation as part of the podcast
Speaker 1: Seeking Peace, produced by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace
Speaker 1: and Security. Let's listen and learn why Nadia Murad is
Speaker 1: one of Seneca's on Women to hear. Nadia, you grew
Speaker 1: up in a Yazii community in the Sinjar district of Iraq.
Speaker 1: Take our listeners back to your childhood. What was it
Speaker 1: like growing up in Sinjar? So? I was born and
Speaker 1: raised in the small village of Koju, south of Saint
Speaker 1: Your Mountain in northern Iraq. My family was large and close,
Speaker 1: as most families were in Kojo and in other villages
Speaker 1: in South CenTra. We lived a sample life. We were
Speaker 1: farmers who worked the lott My mother, she was the
Speaker 1: head of our household and I always looked up to her.
Speaker 1: She was strong and independent. It was not a common
Speaker 1: thing in our community. She worked hard to support my
Speaker 1: my family, my siblings who were eleven siblings, or she
Speaker 1: worked hard to to support us, and she is in
Speaker 1: in large part why I am the person I am today.
Speaker 1: And then on August the third, two thousand and fourteen,
Speaker 1: something terrible happened. These are Yazidis taking to the Barons
Speaker 1: and John Mountains to escape the Islamic State fighters. After
Speaker 1: the militants had sees the minority community stronghold i SIS
Speaker 1: attacked amount Siniar regions, killing and kidnapping thousands of members
Speaker 1: of your community. Followers of this ancient religious sect made
Speaker 1: the journey knowing they were likely to find themselves stranded
Speaker 1: with the clone nothing to survival. You and your loved
Speaker 1: ones were directly affected by this terrible genocide, and fortunately
Speaker 1: you managed to escape. You found refuge in Germany, and
Speaker 1: sometime later you became United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the
Speaker 1: Dignity of Survivors of human trafficking. What was it that
Speaker 1: enabled you, after going through so much difficulty, so many horrors,
Speaker 1: what enabled you to decide to share your experience? You know,
Speaker 1: I when I decided to share my experience, it wasn't easy,
Speaker 1: but I did it because I wanted more than anything
Speaker 1: to seek just for for my community, for my family,
Speaker 1: for for my mother. I wanted the world to know
Speaker 1: what happened to us, and to help our community recover,
Speaker 1: and to take some steps to make sure that what
Speaker 1: happened would never happen again in Arab or anywhere else
Speaker 1: in the world. I am I am grateful that my
Speaker 1: words have reached so many people around the world. Before
Speaker 1: that not many people knew who they Easy they were,
Speaker 1: and now they know, they know what has happened and
Speaker 1: what has been done to my community. But unfortunately, like
Speaker 1: many vulnerable communities, once our story disappears, or once they
Speaker 1: said I Sis was defeated, the world leaves us behind
Speaker 1: and my community continues to suffer. As you know, to
Speaker 1: this day, they still need help. What is the status
Speaker 1: of the Easily community today? Ices may have been defeated
Speaker 1: in central but yes, it is continued to feel the
Speaker 1: effects of genocide. Six years later, over half of the
Speaker 1: Easily community in Iraq is still displaced inside their own country.
Speaker 1: These people survived genocide and displacement, only to be left
Speaker 1: in camps without the support they need to return to
Speaker 1: their homelands and rebuild their lives. Six years later, no
Speaker 1: efforts have been made by either the Iraqi government or
Speaker 1: the international community to rescue these women and traitor. They
Speaker 1: feel the world has forgotten there despite all of this. Yes,
Speaker 1: it is a return to sing Ja because that comes
Speaker 1: are not a solution. They are not sustainable and zes. No,
Speaker 1: they cannot stay in that camps forever. Seneca has one
Speaker 1: hundred women to hear will be back after the short break.
Speaker 1: It is estimated that between six and ten thousand Yea
Speaker 1: Zites were kidnapped, some of them held in captivity for
Speaker 1: years and over half a decade. Since the massacre, two
Speaker 1: to three hundred thousand year Zits remain in camps in
Speaker 1: northern Iraq as internally displaced persons or i d p s.
Speaker 1: When the headlines are no longer, people do forget, but
Speaker 1: you haven't forgotten and your work goes on. You also
Speaker 1: teamed up with a Mal Clooney to bring justice to
Speaker 1: the Aziti community. Tell us about your efforts to take
Speaker 1: Isis to the International Criminal Court and what is happening
Speaker 1: in those efforts. Yeah, as you know, I have been
Speaker 1: working with amal Cloney for the past few years to
Speaker 1: hold Isis account and I am lucky to call her
Speaker 1: a friend. I am legal counsel to Nadia and to
Speaker 1: other Yazdi women and girls who were kidnapped, bought, sold
Speaker 1: enslaved and raped by ISIS. But it was clear from
Speaker 1: an early stage that this was going to be a challenge.
Speaker 1: The world's powers were focused on a military solution and
Speaker 1: nobody wished to speak about justice, so we fixed on
Speaker 1: one imperative. We could not allow the evidence to disappear.
Speaker 1: Working with Amal and member states at the u N,
Speaker 1: we were able to help create the United Team, which
Speaker 1: is working to collect evidence of ISIS crimes. We are
Speaker 1: trying to build cases against ICEIS perpetrators, survivors of sexual violence,
Speaker 1: and the Ezdi community would like to see ISIS held
Speaker 1: accountable in public court. We celebrated the moment four weeks
Speaker 1: ago when the team, working alongside the Iraqi authorities began
Speaker 1: to exhume mass graves and identify the victims remained. This
Speaker 1: first step in any criminal inquiry was a cathartic moment
Speaker 1: for many Yezdi families, and we are encouraged to hear
Speaker 1: that the investigation in Iraq is now fully underway. We
Speaker 1: want to see countries tried their their foreign nationals and
Speaker 1: right now only a few of European countries include in Germany,
Speaker 1: France and Netherlands are holding their foreign nationals account. Many
Speaker 1: other states have refused to do so or have tried
Speaker 1: perpetrators as terrorists. You know, not yet so anguishing to
Speaker 1: hear about the conditions that you just described and what
Speaker 1: the city community is still going through. And I know
Speaker 1: that you have not stopped for a moment trying to
Speaker 1: help your people. Nay. As initiative, the initiative that you
Speaker 1: have set up to continue to help your community is
Speaker 1: something that you are devoting yourself to very very significantly,
Speaker 1: so not this initiative has been working in Syndra for
Speaker 1: the past two years. Our primary focus is to rebuild
Speaker 1: what us is destroyed. We have rebuilt many schools and farms,
Speaker 1: healthcare centers, homes, water services and electorate city. We also
Speaker 1: have projects that empower women, especially survivors, by providing them
Speaker 1: with tangible support. Something that is very much needed in
Speaker 1: the region is a new hospital. We are working on
Speaker 1: building a new hospital now with the support of the
Speaker 1: French government and the President mcron. We continue to advocate
Speaker 1: on behalf of the easily community and survivors of sexual violence.
Speaker 1: We have worked with the French government to relocate women
Speaker 1: and children. I also worked with Canada and Australia to
Speaker 1: to relocate IT serve vers and their families to those countries.
Speaker 1: You know, it's so inspiring to hear about what nadia
Speaker 1: Is initiative is doing to understand how critical your work
Speaker 1: is to continuing to help the community. It's not possible
Speaker 1: to do this work, I know without support. Our listeners
Speaker 1: are hearing you today and hearing how much need there is.
Speaker 1: How can they support Nadia's initiative. I think they can
Speaker 1: raise awareness on their platforms and they can do it
Speaker 1: in their communities and talk about the ez D case
Speaker 1: because our struggle is it's not over. You can You
Speaker 1: can read more about what happened to my community in
Speaker 1: my book The Last Girl. You can write to your
Speaker 1: government leaders and ask them to advocate for for e
Speaker 1: z ds and support organizations who are working with you
Speaker 1: asides and survivors of sexual violence. You have gone through
Speaker 1: a great deal personally, but you have taken all of
Speaker 1: that experience and made a commitment to help your people.
Speaker 1: You have been resilient, You have been an inspiration, being
Speaker 1: informed is critically important. But I also hope, Nadia, that
Speaker 1: many will step forward to support Nadia's initiative in support
Speaker 1: of a community of people who have gone through so
Speaker 1: much and continue to need all of the help and
Speaker 1: assistance to be able to survive and hopefully, in the future,
Speaker 1: truly thrive. So thank you so much, Nadia. We really
Speaker 1: appreciate your being with us today on seeking Peace. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much. Thank you to you for having me.
Speaker 1: It was great to be with you. What a remarkable woman.
Speaker 1: It's so inspiring to hear her hopes and plans for
Speaker 1: a better tomorrow. Here are some things I took away
Speaker 1: from my conversation with Nadia Murraud. First, even when it's painful,
Speaker 1: it's important to share our stories. That's how we make progress.
Speaker 1: Nadia was able to talk about her terrible experiences because
Speaker 1: she had a mission to secure justice for her people
Speaker 1: against isis. Second in the world wind of the day's news,
Speaker 1: we can't forget that there are other causes and other
Speaker 1: battles going on in other parts of the world. There
Speaker 1: are communities in crisis like Raqs Yazdi community, and there
Speaker 1: are survivors of sexual violence who need our help. You
Speaker 1: can help I support Warning Naughtia's initiative. Go to Natia's
Speaker 1: initiative dot org and you can learn more about her
Speaker 1: story in her book The Last Girl, My Story of
Speaker 1: Captivity and My Fight against the Islamic State. Tune in
Speaker 1: on Thursday to learn about our next featured woman and
Speaker 1: discover why she's one of Seneca's on Women to Hear.
Speaker 1: Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear is a collaboration between
Speaker 1: the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio with
Speaker 1: support from founding partner p And. If you like what
Speaker 1: you heard on the show, rate and review it on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, we hope you'll join us for our next
Speaker 1: episode of one hundred Women to Hear, where we can
Speaker 1: all listen, learn and get inspired. Have a great day.