DAVID GREENE, HOST:
An Iraqi woman is visiting Capitol Hill this week. Vian Dakhil is a member of Iraq's Parliament. She is also Yazidi, a religious minority slaughtered and enslaved by ISIS.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
She called attention to Yazidi suffering and is in the United States now to receive a human rights prize named for a Holocaust survivor. She spoke with us through an interpreter.
VIAN DAKHIL: (Through interpreter) But we still have about 3,600 girls and women and children under ISIS control. Eighty-five percent of the cities and villages of the Yazidi are completely destroyed. I need to give my speech to the U.S. and focus again about what happened in the Yazidi.
GREENE: But her trip here almost did not happen after President Trump signed his executive order banning travel from seven mostly Muslim nations including Iraq.
DAKHIL: (Through interpreter) When I heard about this decision, it means all the Iraqi people are equal with the terrorists. It's not fair. It's not true.
INSKEEP: She was given a waiver to travel by the State Department. Now a judge has temporarily blocked the entire ban, though Dakhil says it still sent a message to her people.
DAKHIL: (Through interpreter) Maybe I can travel to the USA because I have a opportunity, but what about all those victims? I'm sure they're thinking about why - why USA do that? We are a victim. We need opportunity. We need help from all the international community.
GREENE: Vian Dakhil receives the Tom Lantos Human Rights Prize on Capitol Hill tomorrow. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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