I Choose My Beginning

In a lyrical and profoundly moving memoir, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Nadia Murad reclaims her extraordinary journey from the embers of devastation to a fight for freedom—and for what comes next when a young girl’s flame cannot be extinguished.

In 2014, Nadia Murad was living in northern Iraq when her world was shattered. Fighters from the so-called Islamic State attacked her village, massacring hundreds—including her mother and six of her brothers—and forcing her, along with thousands of Yazidi women and girls, into ISIS’s system of sexual slavery. Her life since then has been split in two. In one she is a global symbol of courage —a survivor and activist who has stood before world leaders to demand justice. In the other, she is a woman learning how to be a friend, a student, a wife; a woman rediscovering ordinary joy.

In I Choose My Beginning, Nadia brings these two selves together. With honesty and grace, she transforms the pain of her past into a life defined not by what was done to her, but by strength, perseverance, and the freedom to choose happiness. From reshaping international law to building a life filled with friendship and love, Nadia carries the memory of those she lost and those who survived. Their presence reminds her—and all of us—that she has always been more than a victim.

Powerful and deeply inspiring, I Choose My Beginning is the story of an extraordinary woman reclaiming her humanity—and showing that survival is not the end of the story. It is the beginning.