Square Knots

Christian Lutz/AP

The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Dr. Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist, and Nadia Murad, a Yazidi survivor of rape and captivity by ISIS, for their contributions toward combating wartime sexual assault.

Nadia Murad

In 2014, Murad, a member of the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq, was taken captive by ISIS members and sexually enslaved for three months before escaping.

Murad has shared her painful story with international media outlets over and over to show the world what happened to Yazidis. She has become a voice for captive women and girls in the process. She urges women who have faced sexual violence to reclaim their lives.

She was honored for her refusal “to remain silent and ashamed of the abuses to which they have been subjected,” said the Norwegian Nobel Committee. At age 25, she is the second-youngest peace prize recipient; Malala Yousafzai was the youngest at age 17.

Read her story here 

Dr. Denis Mukwege

Mukwege is known as “Dr. Miracle” because of his skill and his devotion to helping victims of gang rape during conflict in his country, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mukwege has treated tens of thousands of women for rape since opening Panzi Hospital in 1999. Those survivors, who range in age from toddlers to seniors, suffered complex gynecological injuries, inflicted by members of rebel groups and the Congolese military.

“What I’m doing really is not only to treat women — their body,” says Mukwege, “[but] also to fight for their own right, to bring them to be autonomous, and, of course, to support them psychologically. And all of this is a process of healing so women can regain their dignity.”