Service95 Book Club: Nadia Murad in Conversation

Powerful and deeply inspiring, I Choose My Beginning is the story of an extraordinary woman reclaiming her humanity, and showing that survival is not the end of the story, but the beginning.

In 2014, Nadia Murad was living in northern Iraq when her world was shattered. Fighters from the so-called Islamic State attacked her village, massacring hundreds – including her mother and six of her brothers – and forcing her, along with thousands of Yazidi women and girls, into ISIS’s system of sexual slavery.

Her life since then has been split in two. In one, she is a global symbol of courage: a survivor and activist who has stood before world leaders to demand justice. In the other, she is a woman learning how to be a friend, a student, a wife – a woman rediscovering ordinary joy.

In I Choose My Beginning: A Story of Activism and Courage, Murad brings these two selves together. With honesty and grace, she transforms the pain of her past into a life defined not by what was done to her, but by strength, perseverance and the freedom to choose happiness. From reshaping international law to building a life filled with friendship and love, Murad carries the memory of those she lost and those who survived. Their presence reminds her – and all of us – that she has always been more than a victim.

Nadia Murad is a human rights activist. In 2018, Murad jointly won a Nobel Peace Prize for her human rights activism. She has won countless other human rights awards in recognition of her courage and continued efforts. She is the recipient of the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize and the Sakharov Prize, and is the UN’s first Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking.

Together with Yazda, a Yazidi rights organisation, she is currently working to bring the Islamic State before the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. She is also the founder of Nadia’s Initiative, a programme dedicated to helping survivors of genocide and human trafficking to heal and rebuild their communities.