"One of these men came up to me, he wanted to take me. I looked at the floor. I was absolutely petrified. When I looked up I saw a huge man, he was like a monster. I cried out, I said 'I'm too young and you're huge!' He hit me, he kicked me and beat me," Murad recounted.
She recalled that a few minutes later she was approached by a smaller man, and begged him to take her instead. The man, she said, asked her to change religion, but "I refused."
He then asked for her hand in marriage, Murad said, and she then told him she was "ill."
"A few days later he forced me to get dressed and put makeup on," she said, recalling that after raping her, he forced her to serve as part of his military faction and humiliated her daily by torturing her and forcing her to wear clothes that didn't fit her body.
On her first attempt to flee, Murad said she was stopped by a guard who then beat her, made her take her clothes off and then put into a room with the other guards, who raped her until she fainted.
After she finally managed to escape three months later, Murad said she was accepted into Germany, where she received the necessary medical attention.
She voiced her thanks to Germany for their welcome, but noted that the suffering she is advocating to end is not just her own, but a "collective suffering" of all women who face the same horrors.
At the Sept. 16 induction ceremony, which was set to coincide with the Sept. 21 U.N. International Day of Peace, Clooney emphasized that "what Nadia has told us about is genocide, and genocide doesn't happen by accident. You have to plan it."
"We know exactly who the perpetrators are. They brag. ISIS brags about its crimes online," she said, explaining that "no one is more blameless" than a young Yazidi woman who has lost everything.
"Yet two years on, two years after the genocide began, 3,200 Yazidi women and children are still held captive by ISIS and not a single member of ISIS has been prosecuted in a court anywhere in the world for crimes committed against the Yazidi," she observed.
Clooney praised Murad for her courage, saying the young woman's strength and leadership "astounds me."
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"She has defied all the labels that life has given her: orphan, rape victim, slave, refugee. She has instead created new ones: survivor, Yazidi leader, women's advocate, Nobel Peace Prize nominee. And now, as of today, Goodwill Ambassador."
Speaking directly to Murad, Clooney said she was sorry "that we have failed you," and voiced her hope that Murad's appointment would be a turning point for all victims of sexual violence in human trafficking.
Murad has already met with various world leaders and heads of state in order to raise awareness of the plight of Yazidis suffering as victims of human trafficking.
Through her ambassadorship, according to the U.N. media advisory, Murad will focus on different advocacy initiatives and will raise awareness of the plight of the countless victims still suffering due to trafficking, particularly refugees, women and girls.
Elise Harris was senior Rome correspondent for CNA from 2012 to 2018.