2 Yazidi survivors of terrorist group win Sakharov prize

pulse

October 27, 2016 6:35 AM

Exiled Turkish journalist Can Dundar and Crimean Tatar activist Mustafa Dzhemilev were also shortlisted for prestigious award.

Nadia Murad (left) has become a figurehead for the effort to protect the Yazidi community after having survived a nightmare captivity at the hands of the Islamic State group

Two Yazidi women activists who escaped the Islamic State group in Iraq won the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize on Thursday, European sources told AFP.

The prize will be awarded to Nadia Murad and Lamia Haji Bashar during a midday session of the assembly in Strasbourg, France, the sources said shortly before the official announcement.

The women have become figureheads for the effort to protect the Yazidi community after having survived a nightmare captivity at the hands of the jihadists.

Named after the dissident Soviet scientist Andrei Sakharov, who died in 1989, the prize is awarded every year to honour individuals who combat intolerance, fanaticism and oppression, often falling foul of their governments as a result.

Last year, the European Parliament awarded the prize to Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi, jailed for "insulting" Islam.

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