BOOK INFORMATION:
Book Title: The Last Girl
Author: Nadia Murad
Publishing Date: November 7th, 2017
Publisher: Random House Audio Publishing Group
Page Count: 320 pages
Source: Netgalley for Review
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
In this intimate 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.
In this intimate 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.
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MY THOUGHTS ON THE BOOK:
I am in no way an expert in the subject, but these are some interesting details I got from the author's story. It has inspired me to learn more about the world around me, and I hope you will read this book also.
The last girl is so overwhelmingly amazing. Nadia Murad’s story is not unusual, and that is so sad. In so many areas of our world, this is quite common. Most of us in America and somewhat in Europe are protected from the horrible atrocities that occur every day in our world. We are too concerned about what we are going to get at Starbucks, or worrying about vaccines, or worrying about the current political climate, or concerned about poor service at a restaurant. Instead of being worried about the fact that everyday people across the world are being oppressed but assaulted. Sometimes even worse like tortured, killed, raped, maimed. Most in America will never witness our family being murdered, shot dead, or our homes being burned down because of our religion or beliefs. Most of us won’t be treated like a slave or be dehumanized in terrible ways. Most of us will never have to worry about being mocked in the street or have everything we love taken from us. I think all too often we take what we have for granted.
The author Nadia Murad was born and raised in a village in Northern Iraq near Mount Sinjar. She was very poor as a child but had a happy childhood. She had a ton of siblings and half-siblings. She had a wonderful mother that did everything she could to take care of and provide for her family. Sadly her mother's husband favored another woman and spent most of his time and attention on the family with her. They were Yazidi, which is a group of people that follow a faith that was created in the 12th century. They have lived for many years in an uneasy peace with their Christian and Muslim neighbors. They have had protectors of various faiths such as the Kurdish people. But recently they have had a genocide by a group called ISIS. The Kurdish people have been fighting them in Northern Iraq and Syria.
The first part of the book describes what it means to be Yazidi. She illustrates the culture, social structure, normative rules, deep faith, and their living in harmony with each other and the land around them. While it is a very patriarchal system, the women are treated with respect and love. Even though they hold less power than the men.
The book also goes in to describe the author herself. She loves makeup, doing her hair, and her family. She is very caring and protective of them. She is very likable and sweet. I felt like we could be friends after reading about her. She seems very adorable and has some silly jokes.
The author and her family have lived in a false hope that ISIS would just leave her poor little village unharmed. They were not prepared for what eventually would happen. ISIS came and attacked her village in full force, in all their cruelty. They exterminated most, if not all the men, they kidnapped boys to be trained as human shields in their war. The girls and women were also captured but for other reasons. They were treated as sex slaves and assaulted physically and emotionally regularly. It happened over and over and over and over again. The author goes into excruciating detail about her time in captivity, and it is hard to believe that human beings could treat other human beings in such a manner. She also shares the incredible details of her escape. I loved learning about her current work as a human rights activist and bring awareness of the recent genocide of her people.
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Nadia Murad survived, but she almost didn’t. Most of her family was killed, maimed or brainwashed by ISIS. I was so amazed by how ISIS couldn’t break her personality, they didn’t kill her light or joy. She knows her worth genuinely as a woman, a human, and a devout Yazidi. They didn’t destroy her faith, she escaped them with her spirituality intact. That is so powerful to me. She feels free to express her feeling and doesn’t apologize for the rage against the people that committed such atrocities in her family. She does not feel heroic though, despite the fact she overcame such horrendous suffering and odds.
This book was so uncomfortable and painful to read. But it was necessary to read. I have never really have thought about the atrocities that happen every day while I live a life of extraordinary privilege. We need be more aware of what happens in the world, with the Yazidis and other groups of people that are being tortured throughout our world. This is a book I would recommend to anyone. This book was incredibly powerful.
A LITTLE ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Nadia Murad Basee Taha (Sorani Kurdish: نادیە موراد باسی تەھا; Arabic: نادية مراد باسي طه; born 1993) is a German-based Yazidi-Iraqi human rights activist. She was kidnapped and held by the Islamic State for three months. In 2018, she and Denis Mukwege were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict." She is the first Iraqi to be awarded a Nobel prize.
Murad is the founder of Nadia's Initiative, an organization dedicated to "helping women and children victimized by genocide, mass atrocities, and human trafficking to heal and rebuild their lives and communities."
Source: Wikipedia
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