Nadia Murad

This is a fascinating first person account of a brave Yazidi woman sexually enslaved to a series of Islamic State militants. in this ARC copy I enjoyed the clear three acts:
1. background including a summary of the unique and poetic Yazidi worldview
2. enslavement in a process that recalled holocaust horror
3. escape and reunion and owning her story

As I read this, I see Scotland, Castille possible limping toward an independence in a less bloody fashion, than say South Sudan or a fracturing show more Iraq-Syria. Reading this, the Yazidis are too small for independence, and apparently too different for protection from Kurds, Iraq, etc. In this era of apparent national identity resurgence, can the world protect its minority cultures, too?

Also, this feels like a cautionary tale like that of "First they came ...", the poem written by German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller about the cowardice of German intellectuals following the Nazis' rise to power and subsequent purging of their chosen targets, group after group. One variation goes:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

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The Last Girl is a harrowing read, recounting as it does the atrocities committed by the self-described Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq, the genocidal campaign they waged against the country's minority Yazidi community, and the terror and sexual violence that they've inflicted on Yazidi women like Nadia Murad. One of the perverse incentives that ISIS offers its recruits is the prospect of acquiring sabiyya: non-Muslim women whom, according to their interpretation of Islam, they can enslave and show more abuse as they wish. Murad became one of them after ISIS captured her home town and slaughtered her mother and six of her siblings. Murad's account is desperately sad and upsetting, and all the more important to read because of it. show less

الفتاة الاخيرة
عند تصفحي لاحد الجرائد العراقية قرأت خبرا عن منع الاطفال من النسب الداعشي دخول سنجار على دعوى ان التقاليد الاجتماعية والدينية تمنع احتضان هؤلاء الاطفال ، كم بائسة هذه الاعراف التي تطبق على النساء المغتصبات واطفالهن الضعفاء،
فتذكرت باني منذ فترة وجيزة قد show more اقتنيت هذا الكتاب فشرعت بمطالعته.
كل تحليل منطقي وتفسير عقلي سيعجز عن تبرير هذه السادية والوحشية التي يتمتع بها مسلحو داعش ، لا شك ان القوى السياسية والدولية قد بلورت (بصورة غير مباشرة وفي بعض الاحيان مباشرة) هذه الاعمال الاجرامية في عقول اصحابها العفنة لكن لا عذر لمن ينسلخ عن انسانيته على اساس ردة الفعل،
هذه القصة المرعبة التي تظنها خيالية قد حصلت في بلدي العراق على مرأى ومسمع من الاطراف السياسية المتخاذلة ولازالت تعتقد ان المحاصصة وتوزيع المناصب ونهب المال العام هو دورها الوحيد تجاه شعبها.
تخبرنا هذه البطلة ( نادية مراد ) عن جانب مضئ وسط هذه العتمة ، كيف يستطيع الانسان ان يهزم اكبر مخاوفه في سبيل البقاء ويتحمل اشد المصائب كي يستمر بالحياة، لن يدعي اكثرنا بامتلاك شجاعتها الفائقة لكن امثالها خلقو حتى نقتدي بهم.
كتاب مهم و مؤلم للغاية. show less

This is Nadia’s story about her escape from slavery and human trafficking. It’s also a love letter to her roots as a Yazidi and the community that she grew up with before it was destroyed by the Islamic State. But it's also the story of the country she longs for and what was lost when everyone turned a blind eye to what was happening and allowed for these atrocities to begin with. There were many moments where I had to pause and really think about what it would mean to have my culture show more beaten out of me. It’s something so ingrained within many of us and to have to give it up for survival is unimaginable.

Her story is one of millions and with the help of Amal Clooney her lawyer they have been working to bring awareness to the issue of sex trafficking and pleading with the UN to help stop this. show less