Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad: Fighting for Victims of Violence

REUTERS/LUCAS JACKSON/VINCENT KESSLER/FILE PHOTOS

Nadia Murad (kiri) dan Denis Mukwege, peraih Nobel Perdamaian 2018.

Sexual violence has historically been inseparable from armed conflict. The violence was sometimes committed systematically. The perpetrators often hid behind impunity and the victims’ screams for help went largely unheard, even in their own communities.

World leaders praised this year’s Nobel committee for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad on Friday (5/10/2018). The two individuals, who have different nationalities, backgrounds, experience and professions, were jointly awarded for their humanitarian efforts to end sexual violence in war.

“It is hard to imagine two more worthy winners of the Nobel Peace Prize than Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet. “This is richly deserved recognition of these two extraordinarily brave, persistent and effective campaigners against the scourge of sexual violence, and the use of rape as a weapon of war. Nadia and Denis, I\'m sure I speak for all human rights defenders when I say we salute you, we admire you beyond words.”

The European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, also showered Mukwege and Murad with praise. “This year’s Nobel Peace Prize celebrates the strength, the courage and the vision, the stories of a man and a woman who have risked their own lives to help, protect and save others,” she said.

Mukwege, a gynecologist, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for treating women, girls and even female babies who were victims of violence in his home country of the Democratic Republic of Congo for more than 20 years.

Witness to violence

Mukwege never planned to work with victims of sexual violence. It all began with the deep concerns that arose from seeing so many women suffering postnatal pains due to lack of proper medical care.

After graduating in medicine from the University of Burundi, Mukwege studied obstetrics and gynecology in France. His thesis was on traumatic fistula. During the First Congo War, he returned home to Bukavu and established Panzi Hospital in 1999. There, he specialized in treating women with injuries from war-related sexual violence.

Of his 85,000 patients with gynecological injury and trauma, 60 percent were victims of sexual violence. Congo’s high number of female victims of sexual violence contributed to the country’s infamous reputation as “the world’s rape capital”. Mukwege’s main duty, along with his team, was to tend to women with injuries from sexual violence, many of who were victims of gang rape.

Mukwege, who has always wanted to become a doctor, often received death threats in his line of work. In 2012, he had to flee his country due to threats against his life.

His ultimate wish is that the world will always be ready to help victims and survivors of sexual violence.

Victim of IS

While Mukwege faced threats, Nadia Murad experienced firsthand the barbaric acts of a terror group. The 25-year-old woman was once an Islamic State (IS) sex slave who witnessed how women were often powerless against armed men who tortured them both physically and psychologically.

Murad is known for her personal tales of IS oppression, which opened the world’s eyes to what was happening to the Yazidi ethnic minority in Iraq. She often encourages survivors of wartime sexual violence to stay strong in life, while assuring them that the IS that treated the Yazidi people so brutally would never win.

Murad is the first Iraqi woman to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. The Iraqi government has expressed its pride for her recognition. Iraqi President Barham Saleh stated that Murad’s Nobel Prize was “an honor for all Iraqis who fought terrorism and bigotry”.

Around 5,000 Yazidis have been killed and thousands more have disappeared during the IS militias’ atrocities in 2014, which the UN has called “genocide”. Murad was taken from her village in northern Iraq and placed in a shelter for three months. At night, the shelter turned in a “market”, with men approaching women of all ages.

As was common for thousands of other Yazidi women, Murad was forced to marry an IS member. She was often beaten and forced to wear jewelry and tight clothing.

Murad escaped and was smuggled from Iraq to Germany in 2015. Soon, she began campaigning actively against human trafficking. In her December 2015 speech at the UN Security Council, she revealed the horrors the Yazidi people experienced under IS. Murad lost her six brothers and her mother, all murdered by IS.

The 1993-born woman now devotes her life to what she calls “the struggle of our people”. (AFP/AP/REUTERS)