Fighters for the Islamic State abducted a young Yazidi woman, her siblings and their mother from their village in northern Iraq more than two years ago. Barely in her 20s, Nadia Murad was separated from her family and survived brutal beatings and sexual torture as she was held captive by ISIS.

Eighteen members of her family have either died or disappeared at the hands of ISIS. The Yazidi people, whose ancestral homeland on Sinjar Mountain in northern Iraq was overrun by the Islamic State in August 2014, have not been able to return to their villages.

Addressing the UN in September, Ms. Murad described her role, speaking repeatedly about her abuse, as a burden, but one she was determined to bear. “I was not raised to give speeches,” she said. “Neither was I born to meet world leaders, nor to represent a cause so heavy, so difficult,” she said. But she will continue “so that one day we can look our abusers in the eye in a court in The Hague and tell the world what they have done to us,” she said. “So my community can heal. So I can be the last girl to come before you.”

Ms. Murad’s story has captured widespread attention. Among the people who have come forward to champion her cause are Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations and Amal Clooney, the British human rights lawyer who now represents her and nominated her for the Battle of Crete Award.

Earlier this year, Ms. Murad was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, appointed a UN Goodwill Ambassador on behalf of the victims of human trafficking, named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People and awarded the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize.