THE LAST GIRL: MY STORY OF CAPTIVITY AND MY FIGHT AGAINST THE ISLAMIC STATE Paperback – 14 September 2018

"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.

This is a must read book that shows the true face of Islam

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.

It's not easy to read books like this. It makes you feel sick to your core and you wonder how anyone can be so depraved, so cruel as to treat another human being in such an inhumane way because of their faith or beliefs or because they are vulnerable. But then I think after reading about the persecution of Jews, the pogrom of Kashmiri Pandits and the atrocities on Yazidi's that they could because good people become enablers by turning away, by keeping quite.I won't call Nadia Murad a rape victim or a rape survivor but a fighter. Even through the depths of hopelessness she fought back every opportunity she got, she took a chance to escape, she showed immense courage to tell her story to save the people who helped her escape and she told her story again to the world to ensure that the terrorists were brought to justice, that what happened to her should not happen to anyone else and that we have a moral duty to take a stand against the enemies of humanity.Moreover, this book is not only about the author's captivity and her escape. It introduces us to Yazidi's, who are more than a brutalized group by Daesh. They have a story. They are a small community who leads a hard life in utter poverty yet they are happy and content with their simple lives and age old customs. The story of different tribes and sects in Iraq-Syria and their complex historical and geopolitical situation. The story of a family, like any other, with their daily struggles, their dreams and hopes. Also a story of the family who is rebuilding a life with the left over pieces in the aftermath of an unspeakable horror meted out to them.

Book is written in very simple way that anyone can relate .only thing is date should be mentioned for every incident.

~Must read to understand isis ideology and its effects on a whole nation~Very emotional

It is a great book but it didn't evoke much emotions in me probably because of the way in which it was written. It is more of a factual type I.e. journalistic and not of the sentimental poetic type. However, the brutalities and unfair situations mentioned in the book caused me to sympathize with the Yazidis, the author and it has also impelled in me a desire to bring ISIS and all Islamic radicals to justice.