A former Isis sex slave, Nadia Murad has told how she was treated ‘like an animal’ by a jihadi ‘monster’ in front of a group of Yazidi women – as they vomited in terror. Nadia Murad, 25, spoke of the harrowing experience she endured at a slave market. Ms Murad, who this week won a Nobel Peace Prize, wrote in her autobiography: ‘We could hear the commotion downstairs where militants were registering and organising, and when the first man entered the room, all the girls started screaming.
‘The militants touched us anywhere they wanted, running their hands over our breasts and our legs, as if we were animals.’ Describing one particular man, she said: ‘He could crush me with his bare hands. No matter what he did, and no matter how much I resisted, I would never be able to fight him off. He smelled of rotten eggs and cologne.’ She said the militants, most of whom ‘looked like monster’ would interrogate the group and ask ‘if they are virgins’, to which they replied ‘of course’. The torture happened after Ms Murad’s village in Sinjar, northern Iraq, was attacked in 2014. She was captured alongside her sisters and lost six brothers and her mother.
She later went as a refugee to Germany. However her mum was murdered by Isis. Outlining the reason for the decision, the Nobel Peace Prize committee said: ‘She has shown uncommon courage in recounting her own sufferings and speaking up on behalf of other victims.
‘Nadia Murad is one of an estimated 3,000 Yazidi girls and women who were victims of rape and other abuses by the IS army. ‘The abuses were systematic and part of a military strategy. They served as a weapon in the fight against Yazidis and other religious minorities.’ Ms Murda’s biography The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity and My Fight Against the Islamic State, published by Virago, is out now.