Trigger warning: The book and thus the article evoke in depth themes of violence, sexual abuse, and suicide.
I picked up The Last Girl without really thinking about it. It was a book I had heard of, but had never taken the time to actually read. Well, I now have, and here’s why you should too.
The Last Girl is the testimony of its author, Nadia Murad, a young Yazidi girl, captured by by the Islamic State in 2014, where she was held as a sexual slave for 11 months. She then escaped to Kurdistan to rejoin her brother, before moving to Germany where she decided to start telling her story.
The Yazidis are a small, endogamous (they follow the traditional custom of only marrying within their community), ethnic and religious minority. The community occupies territories close to Iraqi Kurdistan in Northern Iraq. Usually protected by local Kurdish (another minority living in the region, possessing a powerful army) forces. In the Summer of 2014, ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) invades the region, forcing non-Muslim minorities (such as the Yazidis) to convert to their vision of radical Islamism, enforcing Sharia law, and slaughtering many as they advance in the country. Kurdish forces are forced to flee, and Yazidis, most of whom are merchants and farmers, are left completely vulnerable to the extremely violent, and heavily armed IS.
After Kocho (Nadia’s village) falls to the hand of the IS, a significant part of her community and family is executed, and Nadia is taken to Mosul, forced to become a sabaya (a sexual slave to the Islamic State).
The account she gives in her book is a testimony of her ordeal. Nadia depicts with precision and abundant details the assault she, and the other sabaya underwent, leading the reader to the unavoidable conclusion that rape is a weapon of war. It indeed becomes clear after several chapters that rape is no longer a consequence of the war, but an intrinsic part of the genocidal strategy used by the IS.
Sexual Abuse is used to objectify Yazidis women, who are constantly being sold and bought according to the whims of the IS members, as if they were merely object. The result of this process of dehumanization is inevitably the suicide of several sabaya, whose death remain one of most dreadful part of the book.
But the endured Sexual Abuses also have consequences, on the rest of the community, beyond the direct victims. Indeed, Yazidis are a very religious ethnic group, and forbid intercourses before marriage. Due to these local beliefs, rape victims face the risk of being shunned by their own if they ever come back. After their evasion, some girls even underwent “re-virginization“ surgery. Nadia struggles herself, when she escapes, to tell her brother what happened. The instrumentalization of women as a part of the genocidal fury is one of the main theme of her testimony.
But Murad also goes further,as her book is a call to end inaction in front of the mass atrocities committed during warfare. Nadia calls out the Kurdish army who failed to protect her village, the Iraqi families who were compliant with the Islamic state, and world leaders, whom she urges to act in the defense of Yazidis.
She states towards the end of her book ‘I know now, that I was born in the heart of the crimes committed against me’ (p. 301). Murad has dedicated her whole life to seeking justice for her people. After 11 months of torture, she took advantage of a second of inattention from one of her captors and jumped out of his car. Thanks to an Iraqi Sunnite family she manages to escape to Iraqi Kurdistan, where her only brother left alive awaited her. After living in a refugee camp, she leaves to go to Germany, where she becomes an activist for her community. She urges the UN counsel to act against IS, and denounces the ongoing Yazidis genocide and human trafficking. In 2018, she receives the Nobel Peace Price for her activism, acknowledging her combat on a global scale.
Her book is however not devoid of hope, as it is also a testimony of the humanity she witnessed she firstly depicts the peaceful and respectful cohabitation (and even relationships of friendship) between Muslim Iraqis and Yazidis in her region before the war. She then goes on to explore the solidarity created between the women captives, and finally dedicates a large part of her book to the Iraqi family that saved by helping her escape. She makes a great account of their selflessness and courage, of how they have risked their own lives to save her; hence proving that humanity can transcend social and religious cleavages.
All in all, her book provides a factual, detailed, yet human perspective on the conflict, and leaves the reader with a sense of indignation for the victims and survivors of the war and for the general indifference in which all of this is happening.
In short, read her book: Murad, N. (2017). The Last Girl. New York : Tim Duggan Books
Here is the link to an online, ethical bookshop (so you don’t buy it off Amazon):
https://uk.bookshop.org/books/1605841746_the-last-girl-9789353173227/9789353173227