The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity and My Fight Against the Islamic State

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On August 15th, 2014, when Nadia was just twenty-one years old, this life ended. Islamic State militants massacred the people of her village, executing men who refused to convert to Islam and women too old to become sex slaves. Six of Nadia’s brothers were killed, and her mother soon after, their bodies swept into mass graves. Nadia was taken to Mosul and forced, along with thousands of other Yazidi girls, into the ISIS slave trade. For centuries our stories have been willfully misinterpreted and used to oppress us. The most damaging of these lies is that Tawusi Melek was actually a fallen angel, and therefore when we worship him, we worship the devil. But in Yazidism we do not believe in an evil force, and nothing in our oral tradition supports this. When ISIS came to Sinjar they called us devil worshippers and said that because we had no holy book we were kuffar, or nonbelievers. But I grew up surrounded by Yazidis whose main connection to their faith was in good deeds, like giving food to people in need or comforting someone in mourning. Yazidism has made my people a target, but it is also what keeps us alive. So as can be imagined this is a very visceral and sad book. But the writing is straight-forward, succinct, and beautiful. The reader is taken into Nadia’s family, her home, and then her forlorn tragedy. At the end we get a better understanding of what it is like to be a survivor – and guilt when family, relatives, and friends do not make it. She has a rage and hate of ISIS, and also of the individual men who used their power to sexually subjugate her. Some of these men were “upstanding” members of the religious community who occupied nice homes that they took over from those who were forced to leave – and then brought in their sex slaves.

At the end of THE LAST GIRL, you write, “I know now that I was born in the heart of the crimes committed against me.” What do you mean by that?

Courageous . . . Anyone who wants to understand the so called Islamic State should read’ The Economist A harrowing memoir. . . . Intricate in historical context. . . . The Last Girl leaves readers with urgent, incendiary questions.”— The New York Times Book Review This is a 10-star book written by a very brave young woman persecuted by ISIS, both the men and the women. I wish her health, happiness and peace of mind for the rest of her life. I had wanted to expand my notes on reading to a proper review, but there are many, so I just wanted to highlight a few areas:

I didn’t know much about doomsday preppers before reading this but I’ve heard the term. This sheds a lot of light on what they are and how they sacrifice a lot to feel safe and secure when the time comes. Through the story we get a lot more depth to his character and I actually found myself quite intrigued by him.A teen who went through a traumatic event before moving to a new school in NYC, we follow along as Rachel comes to terms with what happened in her past and navigates the dynamics of a “rich kid” environment.

I cannot imagine enduring all the things she has endured and continuing the fight, or even surviving.

Synopsis:

Instead, it's plain scary that our supposedly postindustrial and humanistic and diverse and democratic and altogether oh-so-very-enlightened world has allowed such thing from hell as DAESH to happen to our contemporaries. Including young and defenceless girls who have pretty much nowhere to run. Like Nadia. Today, Nadia’s story—as a witness to the Islamic State’s brutality, a survivor of rape, a refugee, a Yazidi—has forced the world to pay attention to an ongoing genocide. It is a call to action, a testament to the human will to survive, and a love letter to a lost country, a fragile community, and a family torn apart by war. One can’t help but wonder about the wonderful traditions of West Asian culture in general and Yazidi culture in particular. A beautiful religious tradition in the middle of Abrahamic cultures, the stories of Tawusi Melek, and pilgrimages to the sacred Sinjar mountain fascinate the reader with the plurality of the region. The stories of Yazidis are interlinked with Kurds who have been struggling for their separate nationality since the Ottoman period. However, global attention to the Kurdish movement has been overshadowing the struggle and repression that the Yazidi have been facing for a long time. Yazidis were persecuted earlier by the Ottomans, then Saddam’s Baathists and later on by ISIS. In Murad’s view, the Sadam Hussain regime wanted Yazidis to be Arabs and Kurdish wanted them to be Kurds. Yazidis were persecuted severely compared to other religious minorities such as Christians, Kurds, Shia etc because Yazidis do not have a sacred book meaning monolithic religious tradition. Surpassingly valuable. . . . With her new book, The Last Girl, Nadia Murad has assumed the stature of an Elie Wiesel for her people. . . . As much as it is an account of the Yazidi genocide, the book is also a loving ode to a way of life that has now been all but obliterated.”— Jewish Journal And that refugees from situations like this one (or like the ones against the Kurds) or against Christians in Egypt and other locations Mideast, or Syrian minorities are treated as "like" and "alike" to those masses of refugees who merely are transporting for economic and other personal choice reasons. Because it is quite different. And why don't the countries (like Saudi Arabia) which have immense wealth and all kinds of uninhabited structures- allow them shelter until their lands are freed from the insane dictates? Mosul has been already.

PS. Some fellow readers are feeling it their civic duty to inform me that DAESH is an Islamic group. While I know that, I also have read the book and paid close attention to the author's take on religion. Nadia is very cautious about her views on Islam and makes it clear that her village has had lots of peaceful interaction with Muslims. And while not one of them (or of anyone else!) came forward to help her fellow villagers in the time of dire need, and while the religion is obviously a sore point for most sides involved in this horrible crisis, Nadia is very gracious about Islam. And I respect this point of view and I don't particularly care about religious hate comments/messages.I'm a bit of an old school horror movie geek, so The Last Girl sounded like just the kind of novel I'd enjoy, turns out I was right, I LOVED this I genuinely wished I could be part of the Mary Shelly Club just for their amazing movie nights and horror debates with one another. It’s a horror fan’s dream. Final thoughts on The Last Girl The publisher’s description is spot on (surprise!), so instead of my usual confused and outside-the-box ramble, I am including the publisher's ad copy: I really like that this story is different from most YA Thriller books I’ve read. There’s just something special and unique about it that hits the spot. The main plot Human rights activist Nadia Murad writing memoir". Associated Press. New York. March 29, 2017 . Retrieved November 12, 2018.