Nadia's Initiative

“Help us build a better, safer, and more just world for future generations.”

~ Nadia Murad

Nadia’s Story

Nadia Murad, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and UNODC Goodwill Ambassador, is a leading advocate for survivors of genocide and sexual violence. Nadia’s peaceful life was brutally disrupted in 2014 when ISIS attacked her homeland in Sinjar to ethnically cleanse Iraq of all Yazidis. Since Nadia's escape from ISIS captivity, she has shared her story to raise awareness of ISIS and its genocidal campaign against the Yazidi people. She has become a powerful advocate for women in conflict settings and survivors of sexual violence worldwide.

Much of Nadia’s advocacy work is focused on meeting with global leaders to shed light on the continued plight of the Yazidi people and the need for justice for survivors of sexual violence. Nadia is the President and Chairwoman of Nadia’s Initiative, which actively works to persuade governments and international organizations to support the sustainable re-development of the Yazidi homeland. Nadia is the author of her memoir, The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity and My Fight Against the Islamic State.

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Yazidi Genocide and Aftermath

Nadia’s Initiative

Nadia’s Initiative is dedicated to rebuilding communities in crisis and advocating globally for survivors of sexual violence. The Initiative’s current work is focused on the sustainable re-development of the Yazidi homeland in Sinjar, Iraq, where Nadia grew up. When ISIS launched their genocidal campaign, they not only killed and kidnapped Yazidis, but also destroyed the Yazidi homeland to ensure the community could never return.

Nadia’s Initiative partners with local communities and local and international organizations to design, support, and implement projects that promote the restoration of education, healthcare, livelihoods, WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene), culture, and women’s empowerment in the region. All Nadia’s Initiative programs are community-driven, survivor-centric, and designed to promote long-term peacebuilding. The Initiative advocates governments and international organizations to support efforts to rebuild Sinjar, seek justice for Yazidis, improve security in the region, and support survivors of sexual violence worldwide.

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Recent News

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Nadia Murad's New Memoir is Out Now

Nadia Murad's second book, I Choose My Beginning: A Story of Courage and Activism, is out today. Published by Summit Books, it opens with a foreword by Gloria Steinem.

The Last Girl told the story of what ISIS did to Nadia, her family, and the Yazidi community in 2014. I Choose My Beginning picks up where that book left off, tracing Nadia's journey in the decade since. Those were the years she spent in the halls of international institutions and in courtrooms demanding justice for survivors, and the same years she spent learning how to be a university student, a friend, and a wife. The book brings those two lives together, and carries the memory of those she lost, and those who survived, into both.