THE LAST GIRL: MY STORY OF CAPTIVITY AND MY FIGHT AGAINST THE ISLAMIC STATE

A good story always becomes a part of you.You carry it everywhere.It becomes tangled with your thoughts,your emotions ,your attitude, your essence.The Story of Nadia murad is like that. She is ordinary but the things that have happened to her are extraordinary. She was kidnapped by the ISIS and sold as a sex slave (to put it mildly).I live in a relatively safe part of the world. I have water, food, electricity and I am a male.I never knew that being a male was an entitlement but in this world and in this particular time, it is I suppose.I am a believer, a Hindu to be exact and I never knew that any religion could be this trouble worthy. Well ISIS cannot be called as exactly religious to tell you the truth.I have no idea about their ideology or their reasons for what they do.I am going to read more on them because I know that the venom they have spewed is not that easy to be erased. One thing is for sure, if your religion or politician (whichever that may be) tells you that all the other religions (or difference of opinions for that matter) are wrong and only their religion is right then it’s high time to shed that religion, because that is where ‘hate ‘ starts. The ‘othering’ of what we don’t understand.Nadia Murad tells us how it feels to be snatched from our own homes and to be thrown into an abyss where they rape you, demean you, deconstruct you just because you don’t believe in the same god as they do(sounds familiar?).If there is a god I beseech you to be kind, but before that I urge the humans (who are definitely here, living, reproducing and destroying a planet without even a backward glance) to be kinder. We would need it more than the gods for sure.A great book in short.

Finished reading this book today. A gripping and soulful narrative of her life before, and after being held captive by the Islamic State. The book will surely leave you in pain, in spite of her eventual escape. What will hurt you more is not the horrid account of tortures a girl and her community had to go through on account of their religious identity, but the startling reality of how low human beings can stoop down by "blindly" following unvalidated scriptures that teaches them to hate people who do not follow their faith. The book also gives a first-hand account of the value of hope and resilience in times of utter despair. One can only awe at the heroic & selfless act of Nasser and his family who helps her out of Mosul. Highly recommended.

This book is a harrowing, but a courageous account of brutality and fear.Nadia Murad lived in Kocho, a small village in Northern Iraq. Belonging to the Yazidi community, her only dreams of the future consisted of Kocho and marriage.But it all ends with the incoming of ISIS. Taken captive by them in August 2014, she tells her tale of torment and torture in vivid detail which sends chills down one’s spine.How can one survive after going through so much? How does one feel normal after the mind and boday are inflicted with so much pain?From the beginning, fear is lurking in all the pages culminating in her ultimate capture and torture.When ISIS start coming closer to Kocho, her village in Iraq, there is a scary eeriness as if waiting for the inevitable.Locked in their own houses, streets and village, the fear is hanging like a cloud and overwhelm us too while reading it.To survive after what she has gone through sometimes seems impossible.And when in the magic moment, she jumps her wall into freedom, my heart actually started thudding along with hers.Hats off to Nadia and the entire Yazidi community for bearing the anguish and surviving to tell this tale.

"One who saves one life, saves the world entire...." Talmud.The book revolves around this central idea: If war is the possible solution for some, then forgiveness is greater than anything. This is the story everyone should read, everyone should understand and everyone should stop complaining.The book is all about the genocide at Kocho, Sinjar City which took place in 2014. The story is about a girl called Nadia Murad, who lived with her parents. The story is about how ISIS wiped out the entire village and killed Nadia's entire family and took her into enslavement and how she was sold in the market as a commodity -- exposed to the most treacherous tyranny one could face -- a sex slave.Amal Clooney, Nadia's lawyer explains at the UN Council that she is "seeking not revenge but justice"The book is primarily divided into 3 phases:(a) The Childhood of Nadia Murad(b) The genocide and her captivity(c) Her escape and union with the family.Remember, Nadia is not a Musilm. She is a Yezid/YazidiYou can find out more in (http://www.yeziditruth.org/). We are always deluded with the names like Ismail and Nadia that they are Muslims. No, they are not. Yazidi is a non-Abrahamic religion. Founded by an 11th century Ummayyad sheikh, and is derived from Zoroastrianism (an ancient Persian faith founded by a philosopher), Christianity and Islam. The religion has taken elements from each, ranging from baptism (Christianity) to circumcision (Islam) to reverence of fire as a manifestation from God (derived from Zoroastrianism) and yet remains distinctly non-Abrahamic. This derivative quality has often led the Yazidis to be referred to as a sect.As a minority sect, ISIS/ISIL tried to wipe away. "Convert or die". That was told to the entire family of Nadia and all the villagers in Sinjar. Her brothers died, few of them escaped the firing, bullets ripping apart the ankles.HELP NEVER CAME************************Nadia's family desperately tried to contact their Sunni neighbors, calling their friends in Damascus and other areas but help never came. The villagers quickly succumbed to the atrocities of ISIS who, probably promised a greener end.Hezni, Nadia's brother tried calling every possible aid but ............The helicopters that came to rescue could possibly accommodate only a few.THE NIGHTMARE**********************Separated from her mother, Nadia was sold as a 'sabiyah' or a sex slave in the market. She traveled from place to place in the car and was raped and touched whenever they felt like. The peshmargas made a futile attempt to suppress the upheaval. Later the peshmargas joint the Iraqi force for the war of liberation. Nadia, explains in this book, how the night made her fear, how, under inhuman situation she was transported from one place to another and was raped by many. Her body gave up and so was her mind. She was beaten, lashed by a whip and her failure to escape fomented her torture to a greater extent. She was raped by 3 guards, one after another until morning.The indomitable spirit of Nadia, never failed. She begged to the militants not to touch her but they did. Fate seemed to wipe out the last few traces from Nadia's forehead. She worked as a slave, subjected to in human atrocities, she was made to wipe the floor, clean dishes and was kicked by her owner at the smallest mistakes. She as asked to wear dresses that exposes her maximum flesh while guests were around.THE ESCAPE****************Then the night came. It was darker than anything. The door was ajar and Nadia slipped out. Did she made the right choice? In an ISIS occupied state, if she is again captured......She would not be able to survive the torture this time.She knocked at a neighbor's door in Mosul and someone opened the door. The door opened a new life to Nadia. She was ushered by a family, with many members and she lived there. Finally, Naseer, the main hero of the story, got a fake ID, to salvage Nadia. She took her as her wife, clearing all the check posts one after another until they reached Kurdistan.She writes, "God be with you Naseer," I replied and as he turned and walked toward to exit, I prayed to Tawsui Melek that he and his family would end up somewhere safe. Before I had finished my prayer he was gone.Nadia, went to Germany to voice her proceedings. Before leaving she visited Lalish, the holiest shrine of a Yazidi and prayed hard, like the way she has never done.A little less than a year since giving her first speech in Geneva - she went to New York where the United Nations named her a Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking.She concludes ," more than anything else I said, I want to be the last girl in the world with a story like mine."The book teaches you lot of things. Apart from the political issues of Iraq and the uprising of ISIS, genocide and human effort t survive -- the central issue lies in a woman's power to beat the extreme and meet the ends. When Nadia stepped into her gutted house, only few remnants remain. Yet it is a house.Nadia, went to the United Nations to seek justice. She got hold of a lawyer, may be, they publicized the issue to gain attention. Yet.....Fear not..... Whatever happens never give up..... The evil will give up at the end.....Her life was finished yet life wins after all the struggles.Read this book to cry, read this book to shout, read this book to overcome all fears and read this book to celebrate humanity and the fervor of life.

One among the best books that shows the sufferings of women during war time or ISIS invasion .It breaks our heart

Nadia’s story brings to light the often not talked about product of war - human trafficking and rape. Her courage and strength are remarkable and her continued work to free the remaining Yazidi women is truly inspirational. A very well told story.

Nadia's story is but one of many horrifying stories of the violence inflicted upon humanity by the evils of daesh. however Nadia's story is also one of hope & positivity. Her horrific treatment, her incredible escape & her beautiful journey to shed light on the stories of those who weren't as fortunate to escape...magnificent story & an absolute angel of a survivor. Nadia, you are a hero among us mortals

So sorry the Yazidis had to suffer such cruelty, they went through a genocide likened to the Jews. This is such a courageous story and one that touched my soul and shocked me to the core. May ISIS be brought to justice, every single ungodly one of them.Marilyn Jones

One book should be read by the people who say we are different from the taliban. Ad they follow the same holy book

A autora, a medida que conta sua trágica estória, explica de forma clara as geografia política e cultural para o genocídio do yazidis durante o domínio do Estado Islãmico. O livro é um convite a reflexão sobre o drama de refugiados de guerra. Drama este que envolve atos cruéis de radicais terroristas bem como inacreditáveis atos de solidariedade de onde menos se espera.