This
Diwali the US President Donald Trump did a great favour to entire Human
Civilization by vaporizing the most dreaded Terrorist and evil
incarnate Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Ask any Yazidi you will understand the
gravity of the crimes committed by this evil person. It was a strange
coincident that i happened to finish 'The Last Girl' by Nadia Murad on
that very day. Nadia Murad is a brave Yazidi girl. She like many
thousand Yazidis was subjected to most horrific war crimes including
gang-rape and sex slavery. Her family was gunned down and thrown in
ditch like many thousand Yazidis in August of 2014. She was awarded
Nobel Peace Prize in 2018. 'The Last Girl' is not only her story but
story of all Yazidis.
Yazidis
Yazidis
are 1 million strong endogamous community native of northern Iraq in
Ninveh region. Yazidi religion is different from Islam, Christianity,
Judaism and Zoroastrianism. Yazidis consider Tauwsi Malek a
Peacock Angel that connects them to the God. They also believe in
reincarnation theory. Their holy shrines are located in Lalish valley.
Their priestly caste is called Shaikhs. They call their holy shrines -
Temple. They also believe that all Kurds were originally Yazidis but
converted to Islam in last few centuries. Yazidis suffered Pogroms 73
times in their history.
This is an account of Nadia Murad. She
writes in detail how ISIS captured her village Kocho in northern Iraq.
How all men and old women were gunned down and how young women were
sexually abused and sold in slavery as Sabbiya as per the ISIS version
of Islam. Yazidis were not considered people of the Book hence they
deserved either conversion or total annihilation. Christians were given
safe passage to safer places as they were people of the book. Nadia
Murad family was massacred, she was sold in sex slavery. She was brave
and she managed to escape with help from God. In this book she writes
that its better to die than to live as sex slave. Many times she thought
of committing suicide but she did not get that chance.
The
Jauhar of Padmavati echoed in my mind. I often wonder about our
country's so called liberals and intellectuals. When Padmavati movie
came many of them criticized action of Queen Padmavati in that movie
they all said that it was better to go to Alauddin Khilji than
committing Jauhar. No one is and no one can become a greater feminist
than Nadia Murad and she preferred death over becoming sex slave.
Its
hard to believe that people can commit such horrific crimes in the name
of religion. The Sunni Muslim neighbours did not help Yazidis and many
turned Yazidis to ISIS. Though one Sunni family helped Nadia Murad but
it was too late by then. About 5000 Yazidis were massacred about 10,000
were enslaved and others managed to escape. This was the brutality of
ISIS supported by Sunni Muslims in the name of religion.
When
Ab Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in an US raid, the prominent liberal
newspaper The Washington Post published his obituary as:
I
don't have any words to express. Perhaps the people of The Washington
Post should have read about Yazidis. Calling Baghdadi an 'austere
religious scholar' is like adding insult to the injuries suffered by
Yazidis and other victims.
This is a great book and everyone should read it.
Highly Recommended (10/10).
