Two Yazidi women who survived a nightmare ordeal of kidnapping, rape and slavery at the hands of Islamic State jihadists won the European Parliament’s prestigious Sakharov human rights prize on Thursday.
Nadia Murad and Lamia Haji Bashar have become figureheads for the effort to protect the Yazidis, followers of an ancient religion with more than half a million believers concentrated in northern Iraq.
‘They have a painful and tragic story’ but ‘they felt compelled to survive to bear witness,’ European Parliament chief Martin Schulz told the assembly in Strasbourg.
‘The courage of these two women, the dignity they represent defies all description.’
According …read more
Source: Gulf times
