Nadia Murad Basee Taha (L) and Lamiya Aji Bashar, both Iraqi women of the Yazidi faith, pose with the 2016 Sakharov Prize during an award ceremony at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler
BRUSSELS: Two Yazidi women who escaped sexual enslavement by the Islamic State group have accepted the European Union's Sakharov Prize for human rights and said they would continue to be a voice for others suffering a similar fate.
Lamiya Aji Bashar says Tuesday that the EU's top human rights prize was one "for every woman and girl who has been sexually enslaved" by IS.
With poignant testimony that silenced EU lawmakers, they spoke of their personal fate and escape but centered their calls on the international community to protect their people, a minority of 500,000 living primarily in northern Iraq.
Hundreds of Yazidi women and girls are still captives of IS militants in Iraq and Syria. The Yazidi follow an ancient religion that IS and other Muslim hard-liners consider heretical.
