Two Yazidi women who survived a nightmare ordeal of kidnapping, rape and slavery at the hands of Islamic State jihadists won the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize on Thursday.

Nadia Murad and Lamia Haji Bashar have become figureheads for the effort to protect the Yazidis, followers of an ancient religion with more than half a million believers concentrated in northern Iraq.

"They have a painful and tragic story" but "they felt compelled to survive to bear witness," European Parliament chief Martin Schulz told the assembly in Strasbourg.

"The courage of these two women, the dignity they represent defies all description."

Murad hailed the prize as a "profound message to the ISIS terrorist group that their criminal inhumanity is condemned and their victims are honored by the free world".

In a statement she said the award told "our people and particularly to the more than 6,700 women, girls, and children who became victims of slavery and human trafficking under ISIS, that the genocide will not be repeated".

According to UN experts, around 3,200 Yazidis are currently being held by IS, the majority of them in war-ravaged Syria.

Bestowed annually, the award is named after the dissident Soviet scientist Andrei Sakharov, who died in 1989, and honours individuals who combat intolerance, fanaticism and oppression, often falling foul of their governments as a result.

The prize, worth 50,000 euros ($55,000), will be presented at a ceremony on December 14 in Strasbourg.

Murad, a slight, softly spoken young woman, was taken by IS from her home village of Kocho near Iraq's northern town of Sinjar in August 2014 and brought to the city of Mosul.

As a captive of the reviled extremist group, Murad, now 23, said she was tortured and raped.

Bashar, who was just 16 when she was taken and is also from Kocho, witnessed family and friends being slaughtered by IS jihadists before being enslaved and sold.

After 20 months in captivity she escaped but then fell into the hands of an Iraqi hospital director who also abused and raped her and several other victims.

- Lived through a nightmare -

In a final tragedy, Bashar suffered horrific burns to her face and lost her right eye when one of her friends stepped on a landmine following their flight from the hospital director.

The 2014 massacre perpetrated against the Yazidis by IS fighters in Sinjar forced tens of thousands to flee and left an already vulnerable community under perilous threat.

UN investigators have said the IS assault on the Yazidis was a premeditated effort to exterminate an entire community -- crimes that amount to genocide.

In speeches and interviews, Murad has voiced deep frustration with the international community for abandoning her people in the hands of grotesquely violent criminals.

Bashar said in a voicemail message left with Mirza Dinnayi, founder of the German-Iraqi aid group Air Bridge Iraq: "I am so happy about the prize because I won it in the name of the Yazidi victims.

"It is important that the world does not forget the women and children imprisoned by IS and that such crimes are not perpetrated against anyone," she said in Kurdish. Dinnayi, who has been looking after Bashar since her arrival in Germany in April, translated the message into German.

Last year, the European Parliament awarded the prize to Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi, jailed for "insulting" Islam.

Past winners include Pakistani education campaigner Malala Yousafzai, late South African rights icon Nelson Mandela and Myanmar activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

Exiled Turkish journalist Can Dundar and Crimean Tatar activist Mustafa Dzhemilev were also shortlisted for the prestigious award.

Separately, the EU assembly called on Turkey to free all journalists detained without solid evidence, saying in a resolution that the failed coup in July should not serve as a pretext to silence the media and opposition.

Facts on Iraq's Yazidi minority
Strasbourg, France (AFP) Oct 27, 2016 - Iraq's Yazidi minority is in the spotlight Thursday after two women from the community won the European Parliament's Sakharov human rights prize.

Nadia Murad and Lamia Haji Bashar have spearheaded a movement to protect Yazidis, followers of an ancient religion with more than half a million Kurdish-speaking believers concentrated in northern Iraq.

Here are some facts about the Yazidis:

- Ancient faith -

Mainly living in remote corners of Iraqi Kurdistan, the Yazidis adhere to a faith that emerged in Mesopotamia more than 4,000 years ago. It is rooted in Zoroastrianism but has over time integrated elements of Islam and Christianity. Yazidis pray to God facing the sun and worship his seven angels -- the most important of which is Melek Taus, or Peacock Angel.

- Forced to flee -

Of the world's 1.5 million Yazidis, the largest community is in Iraq -- comprising 550,000 people according to the Iraqi Kurdistan government. Of these, some 400,000 have been displaced by fighting with the jihadist Islamic State. Around 1,500 have been killed and nearly 4,000 are in captivity.

A few thousand more are in Syria, Turkey, Armenia and Georgia. They are mostly impoverished farmers and herders. The United Nations has estimated that around 3,200 Yazidis are currently in the hands of the Islamic State, mainly in Syria.

- Unique beliefs -

Yazidis discourage marriage outside the community and even across their caste system. Their unique beliefs and practices -- some are known to refrain from eating lettuce and wearing the colour blue -- have often been misconstrued as satanic. Orthodox Muslims consider the Peacock a demon figure and refer to Yazidis as devil-worshippers.

- Persecuted minority -

As non-Arab and non-Muslim Iraqis, Yazidis have long been one of Iraq's most vulnerable minorities. Persecution by Saddam Hussein forced thousands of families to flee the country. Germany is home to the largest community abroad, with an estimated 40,000.

On August 14, 2007, massive truck bombs almost entirely destroyed two small Yazidi villages in northern Iraq. More than 400 people died in the single deadliest attack since the 2003 US-led invasion.

- The fall of Sinjar -

In August 2014, Yazidis struggled to survive after their bastion Sinjar was seized by the Islamic State, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee. The IS then pursued a brutal crackdown on the minority that included massacres, enslavement and rape.

UN investigators have said the IS assault on the Yazidis was a premeditated effort to exterminate an entire community -- crimes that amount to genocide.

Iraqi Kurdish forces backed by US-led coalition air strikes recaptured Sinjar in November 2015.