Nadia Murad to speak at Sharjah event
First Iraqi recipient of Nobel Peace Prize will talk about how she survived Daesh captivity
Iraqi recipient of Nobel Peace Prize will talk about how she survived Daesh captivity |
Iraqi human rights activist and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad, who was held captive by Daesh for three months, will make her first formal public appearance at a youth conference in Sharjah, the Big Heart Foundation said yesterday.
Murad will join discussions at the third edition of the ‘Investing in the Future’ conference on October 24-25 to share her inspiring story of survival.
The first Iraqi recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict, Murad is expected to speak at the conference themed ‘Youth — Crisis Challenges and Development Opportunities’ to tell youth in the Mena region “how she transformed her sufferings into a formidable example of peaceful resistance, courage, patience and hope”.
Mariam Al Hammadi, director of the Big Heart Foundation, said: “Nadia’s presence at [the conference] is a big success in furthering our objective to make the region’s youth’s voice heard, offer them a platform to meet leading rights advocates, international experts, state entities and NGOs, and share their challenges as well as their vision about the future and the ways they aim to shape it.”
In September 2016, Nadia Murad was appointed the first Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, defending the rights of 1,300 Yazidi women who were still held captive by Daesh.
Her memoir The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State takes us from her childhood in a remote village in Iraq through loss and brutality to safety in Germany.