A Yazidi woman who escaped sexual slavery to ISIS recently gave her testimony before Congress.
CNN.com reports that Nadia Murad escaped ISIS captivity as a sex slave in 2014 and is adamant that the U.S. and other countries need to do more to defeat the terrorist group.
“Daesh [the Arabic acronym for ISIS] will not give up their weapons unless we force them to give up their weapons," she testified, with the assistance of a translator. "The Yazidi people cannot wait.”
Murad urged the U.S. and other countries "to establish a safe and protected zone for Iraqi and Syrian religious minorities,” something the Obama administration has been reluctant to do.
Murad testified how she and many other women and girls were raped by ISIS militants and forced into sexual slavery. She also said she saw her mother and six brothers executed by ISIS in a single day.
She eventually escaped to Mosul where a Muslim family helped her obtain fake Islamic identification which allowed her to escape ISIS territory altogether.
Although she escaped to freedom, Murad said she does not truly feel free because the ISIS militants who captured her and perpetrated the horrible crimes against her and so many others have not been brought to justice.
"I was freed, but I do not (have) the feeling of the freedom because those who have committed these crimes have not been held accountable," she said.
Although the U.S. has officially acknowledged that ISIS is committing genocide in the Middle East, Murad urges more to be done.
She urged Muslims to speak out against ISIS as well.
"What has been happening has been happening under the name of Islam. The Muslims must be the first ones to resist this ... We have not seen that Daesh have been labeled as an infidel group within Islam by any Muslim country."
Photo courtesy: Thinkstockphotos.com
Publication date: June 22, 2016
