The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State

Nadia Murad

Nov 2017 · Sold by Crown

About this ebook

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE • In this “courageous” (The Washington Post) memoir of survival, a former captive of the Islamic State tells her harrowing and ultimately inspiring story.
 
Nadia Murad was born and raised in Kocho, a small village of farmers and shepherds in northern Iraq. A member of the Yazidi community, she and her brothers and sisters lived a quiet life. Nadia had dreams of becoming a history teacher or opening her own beauty salon.
 
On August 15th, 2014, when Nadia was just twenty-one years old, this life ended. Islamic State militants massacred the people of her village, executing men who refused to convert to Islam and women too old to become sex slaves. Six of Nadia’s brothers were killed, and her mother soon after, their bodies swept into mass graves. Nadia was taken to Mosul and forced, along with thousands of other Yazidi girls, into the ISIS slave trade.
 
Nadia would be held captive by several militants and repeatedly raped and beaten. Finally, she managed a narrow escape through the streets of Mosul, finding shelter in the home of a Sunni Muslim family whose eldest son risked his life to smuggle her to safety.
 
Today, Nadia's story—as a witness to the Islamic State's brutality, a survivor of rape, a refugee, a Yazidi—has forced the world to pay attention to an ongoing genocide. It is a call to action, a testament to the human will to survive, and a love letter to a lost country, a fragile community, and a family torn apart by war.

Ratings and reviews

The kind of story that makes you want to grab your best friends, board a plane to Northern Iraq and take out ISIS yourselves. It also makes you want to envelope your arms around this brave, young, wounded girl and make everything all right for her for the rest of her life. Its a critical read for every human being who believes we have a responsibility to help each other, especially where our lives are at stake. Tracy Buice

A sad as this book was, it was an amazing story due to what Nadia had to endure. Nadia, if for some miracle you read my comment I want to thank you for sharing your story with the world about your journey and the relentless fight for self preservation you had to endure. Thank you for showing Yazidi women have immense courage. I am sure Yazidi people around the world are very proud of you for your bravery in sharing your story. Thank you.

The subject matter is difficult to read. I'm grateful that Nadia has the courage to share her story, and the story of her family.

About the author

Nadia Murad is a human rights activist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. She is the recipient of the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize and the Sakharov Prize, and is the UN’s first Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking. Together with Yazda, a Yazidi rights organization, she is currently working to bring the Islamic State before the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. She is also the founder of Nadia’s Initiative, a program dedicated to helping survivors of genocide and human trafficking to heal and rebuild their communities.

Amal Clooney is a barrister practicing at Doughty Street Chambers in London who specializes in international law and human rights. She is also a Visiting Professor at Columbia Law School. Clooney is currently legal counsel to Nadia Murad and other Yazidi women who have been sexually enslaved by ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and is working to secure accountability for the crimes committed by ISIS in national and international courts.