Iraqi Ezidi women win Sakharov freedom prize

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) – Two Ezidi women who survived sexual enslavement by Daesh in Iraq were declared 2016’s laureates of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom and Thought on Thursday.

“Nadia Murad Basee Taha and Lamiya Aji Bashar have become spokespersons for women afflicted by IS’s campaign of sexual violence,” a statement by the European Parliament read, using an alternative name for Daesh.

Ezidis, a minority group in Iraq which has suffered numerous attacks because of their religion, have faced persecution by the Daesh terror group which dubbed them 'devil worshipers'.

Daesh captured Taha and Bashar on Aug. 3, 2014 alongside numerous women and children in Kocho village in Iraq’s Sinjar province after massacring all the males and older women in the area.

The two women were used by Daesh terrorists as sex slaves before they managed to escape.

“They are public advocates for the Yazidi [Ezidi] community in Iraq, a religious minority that has been the subject of a genocidal campaign by IS militants,” the statement read.

The annual Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought was established in 1988 and is given to those who make an “exceptional contribution to the fight for human rights across the globe,” the European Parliament added.