Sakharov Prize 2016: the plight of Yazidis at the hands of Islamic State
Parliament has awarded this year's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar.
Zahra, from the Yazidi religious minority, shows the identity card of her 18-year-old daughter Bishara captured by Islamic State militants
Yazidi and Kurdish women fighters posted in a strategic position, only two kilometres away from the front line with IS ©Alfred Yaghobzadeh
A Yazidi woman building a mud oven in Khanke refugee camp. ©Alfred Yaghobzadeh
A Yazidi man carries blankets in the ruins of Sinjar, destroyed during clashes between IS fighters and Kurdish forces. ©Alfred Yaghobzadeh
Final goodbye to young Yazidi women - former Islamic State prisoners - at the sacred Lalish temple. ©Alfred Yaghobzadeh
Since escaping sexual enslavement by Islamic State, the two Iraqi Yazidis have become human rights campaigners. Yazidis have been subject to a genocidal campaign by Islamic State since 2014 with thousands killed or enslaved. Learn more about the plight of Iraq’s Yazidis through the lenses of Iranian photographer Alfred Yaghobzadeh.
They lost their children, some were forced to join the army or had to flee Islamic State slavery. Check the photos above and read the stories of Iraq’s Yazidis. Two of them, Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar, receive Parliament's Sakharov Prize for human rights at a ceremony in Strasbourg on 13 December.
About the photgrapher
Alfred Yaghobzadeh is an Iranian photographer of Armenian-Assyrian descent. His assignments have taken him across the world, reporting on breaking news and major conflicts in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. He has received several awards for his work, including the World Press Photo Prize, the American Overseas Press Club Prize and the NPPA Best of Photojournalism.
Further information
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More about Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar
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Iraq: kidnapping and mistreatment of women (27 November 2014)
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Systematic mass murder of religious minorities by Islamic State (4 February 2016)
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Call for help: Yazidis bear witness to violence by Islamic State
