The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity and My Fight Against the Islamic State

by Nadia Murad

so a lot of us lived thinking those days were in the past, that the world was too modern and too civilized to be the kind of place where an entire group could be killed just because of their religion.

Prayer is meant to be a personal expression, not a chore or an empty ritual.

Sinjar is a disputed territory—claimed by both Baghdad and Kurdistan—strategically close to Mosul and Syria and potentially rich with natural gas.

I still think that being forced to leave your home out of fear is one of the worst injustices a human being can face. Everything you love is stolen, and you risk your life to live in a place that means nothing to you and where, because you come from a country now known for war and terrorism, you are not really wanted.

and that moment on the bus with Abu Batat was the moment I started dying.

These are the things that happen between lovers when they get married, I thought.

I hated her, not just because she had let Mosul be taken over by ISIS, but because she had let it be taken over by men.

If a wound or a scar prevented him or anyone else from raping me, I would wear it like a jewel.

if you are a good person, deep down, then you can be born and raised in Islamic State headquarters and still be good, just like you can be forced to convert to a religion you don’t believe in and still be a Yazidi.

I know now that I was born in the heart of the crimes committed against me.

I don’t take my freedom for granted.

Every time I tell my story, I feel that I am taking some power away from the terrorists.

More than anything else, I said, I want to be the last girl in the world with a story like mine.