I CHOOSE MY BEGINNING

A Nobel Peace Prize laureate and genocide survivor forges her identity beyond her activist persona.

Murad expands on the story she first told of her capture, enslavement, and repeated rape by multiple Islamic State militants in her first memoir, The Last Girl (2017), to detail her process of building a new life after her escape. In this nonlinear but clearly told account, the author and collaborator Krajeski describe Murad’s experiences as part of the Yazidi religious minority in Iraq before, during, and after the 2014 genocide by ISIS that left several members of her large immediate family dead. Divided into three sections—“Survival,” “Work,” and “Liberation”—the book follows Murad’s gradual rise as an international activist advocating for the end of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), for which she won the Nobel in 2018. Throughout the text, the author offers a critical perspective on the impossible demands and great personal cost she faced once she chose to share her testimony in hopes of helping to free fellow captives held by ISIS and step into her role as international activist. “I would become little more than a vessel that carried the message of the Yazidi struggle, and I needed to look a certain way in order to present that message,” she writes of her frustration at being told by various handlers to present only a carefully curated persona to the public. Over time, to the reader’s gratification, Murad learns to claim her own agency, making choices for herself, like working with an interpreter who makes her feel safe and heard—and ends up playing a pivotal role in her personal life—and choosing to start her own nonprofit and pursuing her undergraduate degree in the United States. Feminist activist Gloria Steinem contributes the foreword.

An inspiring story of a woman fighting to create a life that’s all her own.