2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights activist, Nadia Murad, will be joining IU as a guest of the Many Worlds, One Globe initiative of the Hutton Honors College on October 8th from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the IMU Solarium. Murad was awarded the Nobel Prize along with Denis Mukwege for their activism to end sexual violence as a weapon of war. This event is free and open to the public.
Murad’s best-selling memoir The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State is a harrowing account of her experience in captivity, her escape, and the genocide of the Yazidi people.
In 2014, her village was attacked by the Islamic State; 600 Yazidi men were killed and she was forced into slavery along with thousands of Yazidi girls. Murad escaped after one month to Germany, and later appeared before the UN Security Council on human trafficking and slavery, which drew attention to the Yazidi people and the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
Murad is a leading voice for survivors of genocide and sexual violence. She continues to work with human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and Yazda, a U.S. global nonprofit organization focused on supporting the Yazidi ethno-religious community and other vulnerable groups.
“It is an honor to host Nadia Murad here at Indiana University. Her courage, activism, and grace through unconscionable circumstances are truly inspiring. We look forward to a productive and engaging discussion with faculty and staff, students and the greater Bloomington community, ” said Dean of Hutton Honors College Andrea Ciccarelli.
Murad is the founder and president of Nadia’s Initiative, a non-profit dedicated to rebuilding communities in crisis, advocating for survivors of sexual violence, and working for a world free from genocide and sexual violence. For more information about the organization, visit www.nadiasinitiative.org.
Hutton Honors College is the interdisciplinary and transcultural academic unit of Indiana University, home to many gifted undergraduate students. Its goal is to ensure an enriched academic and extracurricular experience based on undergraduate research activities, innovative learning, international experience, and students’ engagement on campus and in the Bloomington Community. For more information about this event, please click here or contact hhcextra@indiana.edu.
