Western Asia: Nadia Murad
- Hayeon Kwak
- Jan 22
- 2 min read
In Western Asia, sexual abuse is the most common form of human trafficking. These can be expressed as sexual human trafficking and forced marriage. Western Asia is a fragmented region where frequent wars create displacement and starvation. This unstable situation contributed to a gradual increase in the number of victims of human trafficking in this region. Also, the pandemic worsened the situation, where a stagnant economy led to more people migrating, escalating their chance to be exploited by human traffickers. Victims of forced marriage are various in the fact that victims also can be males, too. Those victims, especially at a young age have no right to defend themselves when their legal families exploit them and abuse them. Many non profit organizations like Free the Slaves and government agencies like USAID are working to alleviate human trafficking in Western Asia.
Nadia Murad
Nadia Murad is the nominator of the Nobel Prize in 2018 “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict (The Nobel Prize).” She is a passionate activist to end sexual human trafficking in war as the first Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking by the United Nations. Murad’s activities brought a lot of attention to the topic, as she is a survivor of sex slavery. She was sold as a sex slave when the Islamic State attacked Kojo, a village located in Northern Iraq, for the purpose of ethnic cleansing. After experiencing terrible suffering, she escaped from the ISIS captivity and started sharing her stories internationally to prevent further suffering of young women. Besides being a world-renowned advocate for human rights, she also serves as the President and Chairwoman of Nadia’s Initiative and has published her memoir: The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State. Nadia’s Initiative specifically concentrates on the reconstruction of Murad’s homeland, Sinjar, and raising support for survivors of sexual violence in a globalized scale. From small groups from local organizations to big organizations like governments, Murad cooperates with various organizations to achieve her goals of ending sex slavery in this day and age.
Written by Haeum Lee
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