(Strasbourg) This year, Yazidi lawyers Nadia Murad Basee and Lamiya Aji are the winners of the European Parliament’s yearly Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought. It has just been announced by the president of the EU Assembly, Martin Schulz, at the plenary meeting. The two women, members of a religious minority that is persecuted in the Middle East and the victim of genocide, survived sexual slavery by the Islamic State (Isis) “and have become the spokespersons of abused women” from Daesh. “This prize has a strong symbolic value – Schulz said – and should also be an encouragement” for all those who are victims of war, violence and poverty in conflict zones. In addition, the Prize given to the two women urges the EU, according to the president, to fight international terrorism and solve the current conflict.