Nadia Murad, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Chapman University Presidential Fellow in Peace Studies, was named one of Time magazine’s 12 Women of the Year.
Murad started a three-year appointment as a presidential fellow in June 2022. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018, and since her Chapman appointment has spoken at Commencement and worked with students in the course, “Unsung Stories and New Expressions: Making Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Visible.” In March, she will attend the 25th annual Holocaust Art and Writing Contest awards ceremony.
In 2018, Murad founded Nadia’s Initiative, a nonprofit organization that rebuilds struggling communities and advocates for survivors of sexual violence. The organization’s launch was prompted by the 2014 Sinjar massacre, when the Islamic State attacked Murad’s home in northern Iraq as an act of genocide against the minority Yazidi population. Thousands were murdered, including Murad’s mother and six brothers. Murad was taken captive along with thousands of other women and children, until she was able to escape.
Murad’s 2017 memoir, “The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State,” was a New York Times bestseller.
The Time honorees, which include Hollywood star Taraji P. Henson and tennis pro Coco Gauff, have “dedicated themselves to lifting up others as they rise”, according to the magazine.
