In a courtroom in Munich, Nora sat opposite the man who bought her into slavery, raped her and killed her five-year-old daughter.
Nora and Reda were held captive in Iraq by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group in 2015, a year after IS launched what the UN says is a genocidal campaign against the Yazidi religious minority.
They were “bought” as slaves by IS husband and wife Taha al-Jumeily and Jennifer Wenish, who came to Fallujah from Germany.
At the end of July, five-year-old Reda fell ill and wet the bed.
To punish her, Al-Jumaili took the girl outside and chained her to a window in the 50-degree heat. He and his wife left the baby to die of dehydration while her mother, locked inside, could only watch.
In 2021, Venish became one of the first IS members to be tried and convicted of a war crime. A month later, Al-Jumaili was convicted of genocide.
Nora’s testimony was instrumental in cementing their convictions.
“It’s possible, it’s done,” says Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad, a Yazidi activist who hails from the same village as Nora and has spent the past 10 years fighting for such justice.
“People don’t know about (IS) and like-minded groups that they don’t care about being killed. But they are very afraid to face women and girls in court,” she says.
“And they will always come back under a different name if we don’t hold them accountable to the world.”
