Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human rights activist Nadia Murad shared her fight against genocide at the Pardee School of Global Studies’ inaugural Shahpari Zanganeh lecture on Wednesday.
Murad survived the Yazidi genocide, which took place in 2014 at the hands of ISIS. The conflict displaced over 400,000 Yazidis, enslaved over 6,000 women and children and killed over 5,000 men and older women, according to Nadia’s Initiative.
Noora Lori, a Pardee professor and director of Pardee’s Middle East and North Africa Initiative, moderated the lecture at Morse Auditorium. The conversation centered on Murad’s life before she was taken captive by ISIS and how her time in captivity shaped her activism and outlook.
“It was kind of incredible to see how someone handles atrocities with a lot of dignity,” Lori said. “Clarity and honesty and leadership without revenge is just such a powerful message, and a really powerful message right now.”
The event consisted of an hour-long conversation and Q&A, and attendees could purchase Murad’s memoir, “The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic Statement,” and get their copy signed at the Rajen Kilachand Center.
Allegra Vercesi, one of many Pardee’s dean ambassadors who helped prepare the event and greet attendees at the door, said the event shows the Boston University experience goes beyond attending classes.
“It’s about actually putting a face to the names of these amazing, incredible people who have showed up in society and done incredible things like this,” Vercesi said.
Lori said the conversation brought the BU community together to discuss contemporary issues of terrorism and genocide, including current debates over the Israel-Palestine conflict, “without all of the politicization that comes with it.”
“The same community that is hurting and in pain around that issue got to have some kind of conversation around this question of ethnic or religious-based violence and what that means for people who survive those atrocities,” Lori said.
In the talk, Murad touched on how religion is misused as a reason to commit acts of harm or genocide — like what happened to her as a Yazidi in the 2014 genocide. This has become a focus of her activism today, as she speaks with many different religious leaders and familiarizes herself with the religions of different regions she visits.
Lori found the religious aspect important and noted the impact of an “interfaith conversation” between Murad and a religious group that caused her harm.
“To see someone who’s experienced a lot of violence in the name of religion still have this openness [and an] open heart to other people from that religion, and to not sort of have that all-encompassing narrative was really powerful,” she said.
Although Lori has a “clear stance” on the Palestine-Israel conflict and will not “condone genocide or say it’s not happening,” she said these issues have become contested and politicized. The conversation with Murad offered a chance to approach the subject from a new lens, she said.
“It was really powerful for me to be able to sort of touch on the same questions but for a different genocide … and think about how maybe having conversations where we’re less personally involved allows us to take a step back,” Lori said.
