OSLO, Norway (AP) Raped after being forced into sexual slavery by the Islamic State group, Nadia Murad did not succumb to shame or despair the young Iraqi woman spoke out. Surgeon Denis Mukwege treated countless victims of sexual violence in war-torn Congo and told the world of their suffering. Together, they were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their campaigns to end rape and sexual abuse as weapons of war.
The award is partly to highlight the awareness of sexual violence. But the further purpose of this is that nations take responsibility, that communities take responsibility and that the international community take responsibility, said Berit Reiss-Andersen, chairwoman of the committee, which bestowed the $1.01-million prize.
Dear survivors from all over the world, I would like to tell you that, through this Nobel Prize, the world is listening to you and refusing indifference, Mukwege, 63, told a news conference outside the hospital he founded in Bukavu in eastern Congo, where he has treated tens of thousands of victims among them women, teenage girls, small girls, babies, he said Friday.
The world refuses to remain idle with arms crossed facing your suffering. We hope that the world will not put off acting with force and determination in your favor because the survival of humanity depends on you, Mukwege said.
Murad, 25, was one of an estimated 3,000 girls and women from Iraqs Yazidi minority group who were kidnapped in 2014 by IS militants and sold into sexual slavery. She was raped, beaten and tortured before managing to escape three months later. After getting treatment in Germany, she chose to speak to the world about the horrors faced by Yazidi women, regardless of the stigma in her culture surrounding rape.
In 2016 she was named the United Nations first Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking.
