Confronting Trauma and Future Goals

This is the Guardian. This article contains references to child trafficking and suicide. Take care when listening. Welcome to The Guardian Long Read, showcasing the best long form journalism covering culture, politics and new thinking. For the text version of this and all our long reads, go to theguardian.com forward slash longweed. Any other child would have died. The miraculous survival of Nada Itrab. Giles Tremlett by Nora Lopez Holden. On the 27th of August, 2013. Tall spirited nine-year-old girl with long well-brushed hair boarded an overnight coach in Barcelona. Nada Itrag was bright and observant. At school, she regularly came top of her class. Even now she carried a notebook, eager to record the things she would discover on this trip. She'd been given a camera too. A cheap lilac-colored digital model, which, since she was unused to luxuries, seemed to her like a treasure. In eight hours, Nada would be at Barajas Airport in the Spanish capital, Madrid. She would take her first flight, heading for Bolivia's largest city, Santa Cruz de la Sierra. To her, the trip was an adventure. Like something from the story books that she read at her local library in L'Hospitalette de Yobregat. a city just south of Barcelona. The daughter of undocumented immigrants from Morocco, Nader had lived there since she was four. Only one other person was travelling with Nada. Grover Morales was a neighbor with a saintly air. In La Florida, the poor neighborhood in which he and Nada's family lived, Morales made a point of greeting everyone, regardless of race or faith. He read religious books. Not just the Christian Bible, but also the Torah and the Quran. He made Nada's family food. He had install a bath for them with his own hands. For Morales, a Bolivian man in his mid-30s, This was a business and family trip. He was going home to pick up jewellery and bring it back to sell. Also he said. He offered to take Nada as a reward for her excellent schoolwork. They would be back in a week. Her parents signed a notarized document permitting Neda to travel with him. Nada was excited. When she returned for the new school year a few weeks later, she would not have to pretend, as she usually did, that her family had spent the summer at the seaside. rather than eking out their little money at home. She would have a real story to tell. But she was also nervous. She knew things about Morales that others did not. At the Cyber Cafe where her family used the internet. She'd found a video of him entering a trance in his place of worship. with his hair whipping across his face as he worked himself up to an ecstatic frenzy. That scared her. As a nine-year-old, she also did not understand the weird, unsettling things he occasionally did when her parents left them alone. Why did he end some rough and tumble games by lying, fully clothed on top of her? But this trip was approved by her parents. Surely nothing bad would happen. The security camera pictures from Barajas Airport capture the moment that Nada and the white shirted Morales line up to board the plane. The image of this bright child waiting in her spotty dress at the airport is heartbreaking. The best that can be said about what followed. Is that she survived? That alone is a triumph. A tribute to another. along with a small number of others who came to her rescue. Nada is now twenty one. A serious, hardworking law student at Barcelona University. As she grew up. She found very few people were interested in asking her what happened after she stepped into that aircraft. It is only in recent years that she herself has begun to find out the full details of a nine-month long ordeal that she tried very hard to forget. It is a process she has chosen to undertake publicly. In some ways, the hours we have spent talking over the past few months form part of her process of recovery. but they also reflect Nada's own ambition to confront the stigma. and campaign against the global trafficking of children. I don't want to just be the girl who got kidnapped. She told me. Staring into the camera at the immigration desk at the airport in Santa Cruz. Nada flushed a tired smile. Her hair ragged from the trip. On the airport bus into the city, she stared out of the window. In Spain, Nada and her parents lived in a neighborhood. that was a byword for poverty, crime, drugs, and despair. to Nada. Santa Cruz seemed even grubbier, shabbier, noisier. Children her age sold wares on the roadside. As they waited for a second bus to Morales' home town of Cochabamba, They argued about her passport. Morales had kept hold of it. Now he claimed it was lost and blamed her. They would have to stay longer while he got her a new one, he said. It was then. that Nada realized she had been tricked. She wept loudly and banged at the bus window, crying for her mother. Morales had claimed to be wealthy. But his mother's home outside Cochabamba was a dump. They spoke Quechua. An indigenous language that Nada didn't understand. Morales and Nada moved into a ramshackle, two-story brick building. On a dirt road in Cochabamba. that belonged to his absent brother Fidel. A woman call Cristina and her two daughters rented the downstairs. Morales rang Nada's parents twice briefly. On one call. Nada was able to tell her panicked mother that her passport had gone. On the other, she blurted out an urgent request. Could she please tell her teacher that she had chicken pox? That way the school would not strike her off its books. One night she dreamed that Morales was on top of her and when she awoke She found his hands on her thighs. Nada screamed and rushed to the window. hoping that someone might hear her cries for help. Nada was tall for her age. About the same height as Morales. But he was stronger and dragged her back. Today she recalls it as the worst night of my life. Over the next few weeks. During the day, Nada would skip rope with Cristina's daughters and borrow their Barbie. At night. The abuse continued. Morales never let nada out of his sight. So when his phone rang a week or two later. She overheard the voice of a Bolivian policeman demanding that he turn himself in and hand her over to the authorities. Unbeknownst to her. Nada's parents had reported her missing. sparking a police hunt on two continents. This call made her life worse. Morales took out his SIM card and smashed the phone. Even a nine-year-old child could see what was happening. He was now a fugitive from justice, and Nada was his captive. The morning after Morales ordered Nada to grab a few of her things. and shortly after they boarded a long distance bus. Modellers behaved as if they were Bonnie and Clyde. Two fugitives who were joyfully on the run together. He also gave her a new name. She was now Evelyn. Pose as his niece. He made her cover her head with headscarves and wear long dresses. Nada told me such stories as if from a distance. like a bemused spectator. I use the logical part of my mind to repress the emotional side. She said. I can tell all this so coolly because I don't feel it. During our conversations, her tone shifted only once. When describing how she had suddenly realized on the day Morales changed her name. That she was powerless. No longer herself. She cried a few tears. but rapidly pulled herself together. Apologizing. After more than six hours driving northeast, The bus dropped Nada and Morales near a town called Entre Rios. From there they hitchhiked to a rural settlement known as Villa Union. Morales used his knack for starting conversations with strangers. then drawing them into his confidence. Within two days he He persuaded a farmer, Santos Rodriguez. to employ them and they moved into his house with his wife and two daughters. The next morning, Nada was given a machete. She should have been starting back at school in Los Pitalet. Instead, she began working from dusk to dawn, clearing fields. Weeding pineapple crops and hacking at the encroaching forest. She washed their clothes in a creek. When Morales thought she wasn't working hard enough, he beat her with a belt. Morales told Nader they were earning money to pay for her passport. She had always applied to schoolwork. And now she did the same to farm labouring. I thought that was my only way out. She told me. Nada learned to fish in the creek. Make fire by rubbing sticks together. And deal with snakes. If the snakes were small, the trick was to step on their head. Grab their tail and hurl them away. If they were big, she called Morales or the other farm workers who hacked at them with machetes. Apart from strength and experience, the men had an additional advantage. Morales had only bought her rubber sandals. On Saturdays, Morales would take her to a place of worship. that belong to a controversial Messianic and Dean religion called I mean poo. The Evangelical Association of the Israelite Mission of the New Universal Covenant. founded by a former Peruvian shoemaker. This fiercely conservative religion preaches a mishmash of beliefs. fixates on the Ten Commandments and sees signs of the apocalypse everywhere. One Saturday. Morales groomed himself carefully. Nadda remembers watching a ceremony in which he stood on the stage and and a man in a white tunic wafted incense. Words were intoned in Gichua. Men hugged him. When Alice looked happy. Nada asked what had happened. Now you are my wife. he said. He became mean, jealous, and more violent. At night he raped her. One evening, as she washed in the river, pushed her head under water and held it there. He repeated the action three times. Another day. who dared question his beliefs in God. Enraged, he struck her right foot with a machete. opening a hole down to her soul. They douse the wound in gasoline. She still has the scar. In the evenings, Morales made her repeat out loud the Ten Commandments. In the mornings. She had to tell him her dreams. Which he would interpret. In her spare time. Nada drew birds, plants, and flowers in her notebook. She labeled them in three languages. Spanish, Catalan. And English. It was like school work. Which made her feel better. She clung onto her optimism. This would all be over one day. she could go back to her family and to school. In late December 2013, four months into her ordeal, Nada and Morales return to his brother Fidel's house in Cochabamba. As Nada listened to drunken neighbors celebrate New Year. and calendars flipped to twenty fourteen. Lieutenant Jose Miguel Hidalgo Spain's civil guard police was anxiously awaiting permission to fly to Bolivia. At 45, Hidalgo was a lead detective in the Homicide, Extortion and Kidnapping Squad. at the Elite Investigative Central Operative Unit, UCO, in Madrid. Nada's case had landed on Hidalgo's desk after her parents went to the Catalan police in the early hours of the fifth of September. tearfully tried to explain what had happened. In Spain, international investigations must go through a national police force, such as a civil guard. So the two forces work together. The Catalans tracked down Morales' brother Fidel. owner of the Cochabamba house. who also now lived in the Barcelona area. Wiretaps were placed on Nader's parents' phones and on those of his brother. Nada's parents said they had trusted Morales. They believed that he wanted to dress her in jewels to smuggle back into Spain. But seemed confused. Even today, Nada is not sure whether Morales fooled them. Or if they effectively sold her. Maybe both things are possible. They were undocumente immigrants living in the shadows of Spanish society. Her father, who drank, raged, and bullied his wife, was Worked odd jobs for cash. Her mother cleaned houses. They squatted in a repossessed flat, with no running water and electricity stolen from the grid. Water was fetch from a public tap in a cemetery across the road. Naddie used to push a shopping trolley there with her mother to fill plastic bottles. As he investigated the case, Hidalgo's concern for Nada grew. He discovered that Morales had fled to Spain in 2005. Using false documents to avoid trial in Bolivia for raping two half sisters aged eleven and fourteen. Worse still. It took four months for Hidalgo and a colleague to receive permission to travel. slowed by bureaucracy and fraught relations between a right wing Spanish government. and Bolivia's left-wing president, Evo Morales. On the twenty eighth of January. Hidalgo and a colleague finally reached Bolivia. And two days later, police raided Fidel's house in Cochabamba. When they arrived they were greeted by Cristina. who informed them that Morales and Nada had left the previous day. It was like in the movies. said Idalgo. when we met recently at the Civil Guard headquarters in Madrid. You get so close and then they disappear. En Cochabamba Nada had watched Morales buying more farm tools and realized they were about to move again. He also bought her a guitar and a music book to learn Aimin Poo songs. She was scared of him. So study diligently. Within a week she could strum and sing. But Nada hated that guitar. When they departed on the morning of the 29th of January 2014. He made her carry it. Precious things like some earrings her mother gave her. were left behind. As Hidalgo was making his way to Fidel's house in Cochabamba, Morales and Nada were starting a journey deep into the rainforest by bus, taxi, and on foot. Inside the forest, the trees grew so tall and dense that it was dark even during the day. Snakes, monkeys, giant ants, and jaguars lurked. It took almost an hour to wade through chest high water across one river. They eventually met a tall man dressed in black. Wearing high boots. Nada noticed that Morales was deferential to him. and treated her well in his presence. The man led them to their final destination. Coca cultivating village high in the steep verdant Garrasco National Park. Nada was amazed to find herself in what she saw as a dazzlingly beautiful prison. They were in a place where the land rose towards the Andes, and clouds clung to the thick forest. Wooden houses were dotted around a green pasture with a crystal clear stream. Horses grazed, and trees were laden with fruit. The men here carried guns. The green coca plants stretched out in neat long rows. Apart from that. The village felt remote in both distance and time. something from the twelfth century. Nada recalled. Now she worked full time in the plantations. Picking coca leaves on day wages. It was her job to collect their pay from the farmers they worked for. And she secretly stashed away small sums of money. the idea of buying herself a ticket home. Aircraft and helicopters occasionally flew overhead. Often these were transport for the cocaine trade. Police were afraid to come here. And rarely did so. There was no escape. On the 13th of February 2014. Hidalgo and his colleagues flew back to Spain frustrated. They had missed Nada by twenty four hours, and now she had disappeared again. The sad truth is that she had already been in the hands of an abuser for six months. he recalled. The leads his Bolivian colleagues received over the next few weeks produced no results. Meanwhile. in La Florida, few people beyond Nada's family knew she had been kidnapped. Her story had been kept out of the media. Three weeks later, on the 2nd of March, Cristina received a call from Morales. Police were tapping her phone and listened in. The conversation was mostly in quechua, but suddenly they heard a girl start speaking Spanish. It was Nada asking about the maize she had planted in Cristina's garden. She sounded upset when Cristina said that they had already eaten it. The call at least proved Nada was alive. Cristina's phone show that Morales had rung from a solar powered public telephone deep in the Yungas de Totora region. Eighteen hour hike from the nearest road. Police unit set out on the fourth of March. Prepare to camp overnight and cross three large rivers. But a wooden bridge over the last river had been swept away. As they trudged back the next day, the Nada turned ten years old. Hidalgo returned to Bolivia. Arriving in Cochabamba on the 7th of March. Bolivian colleagues warned that the only way to reach her was by helicopter. But local narcos would shoot at any aircraft passing over their fields. They would have to do a deal. Over lunch at a restaurant in Cochabamba. Hidalgo sat down to negotiate with local leader Angel Leon. who held sway over the coca growers. some of whom grow legally whilst produce for the cocaine trade. He took it as a matter of honour. Italy said. who also bought the farmers five hundred kilos of sugar as part of the deal. Leon agreed to instruct his men to capture Morales and hold on to Nada. Police could then fly in, load them up. and immediately fly away. That night, Nada and Morales were in their cabin when they heard men wading across the river. Soon a posse of rifle carrying farmers appeared at their door. looking menacing in the gloom. Nadha hid in a corner sick with panic. Morales looked even more scared. The men tied Morales' hands together. locked him in a wooden crate, and told Nada to follow them. First she grabbed her camera, notebook, and money. A farmer took her into his family cabin. cradling his gun as he watched over her. She remained terrified. The following morning An army unit provided two helicopters to take Hidalgo. and a Bolivian police squad to rescue Nada. They took off at 1 a.m. flying above the thick forest canopy. Twive minutes later, Hidalgo made out a clearing with a few houses. Bolivian police officer pointed to a girl standing in the field with a bright blue headscarf. Hidalgo knew that for the operation to work, It had to be fast. In and out without cutting the engines. Pilots at the Chimoda Airbase had told him. on the ground. Nada did not understand what was happening. The village was in a state of tension, the men at their cabin doors. The noise of the first helicopter grew louder and louder until it landed in the field. Policewoman in a blue uniform ran towards her. Are you Nada? Nobody had called her by that name for months. barely had time to reply when another helicopter landed. A tall man jumped out and asked the same question. It was Hidalgo. Hidalgo noticed that her voice had a marked Bolivian lilt. and her skin was blistered with mosquito bites. She began to cry. When they took off a few minutes later. Nada looked down. Transfixed by the sight of the lush rainforest from above. The next ten days went by in a flurry of activity. Naga was flown to Cochabamba, where she was given a bed at a state children's home. There were new clothes, medical checks, interviews with police and prosecutors, outings to see the sights. Nada shared the dormitory with a group of teenage girls who brushed and styled her long dark hair daily. No attempt was made to put Nada in contact with her parents. who were now being investigated by public prosecutors for alleged risking their daughter's life. in return for a promised share of Moralis's jewellery. Hidalgo consulted his wife. Then bought Nader a colourful, monster high rucksack. She was delighted. He was impressed by the girl's resilience and intelligence. One of her main concerns is was whether she would have to repeat the school year. She was very bright, lively, and grasped things really quickly. He told me. She also translated basic Getchua words for him. To her. Hidalgo seemed like the sort of father she had only seen in movies. Protective and caring. During the flight back to Spain. Hidalgo noticed that she slipped his uneaten bread roll into her pocket. She was still in survival mode. On the seventeenth of March 2014. Seven months after she left Spain. 10 year old Nada Itrab. Stepped off a flight at Barcelona Airport. dragging her new rucksack behind her and clasping Hidalgo's hand. She was allowed to see her parents. But not alone. I'd never seen my father cry before. She told me. Then they were led away. Nada was now a charge of the Catalan regional government. Which had decided to remove her from her parents. There would be no return home or to the school friend she missed. since she would be placed in institutions away from L'Hospitalet. Her ordeal was far from over. Newspapers and television programs ran jubilant reports of her return. They had only found out about Nada after her rescue in the jungle. Police gave a press conference saying Nada was well. but offering only vaga about what had happened. And that was it. Apart from the news, in October that Morales had been handed a 17 year prison sentence for child trafficking, And two years later. that her parents received two year suspended sentences for abandoning their child. The story seemed to be over. Thanks for listening to The Guardian Long Read. The story continues right after this. Welcome back to the Guardian Long Read. In late 2022, Now Salah seasoned Catalan broadcast journalist. made one of her regular visits to the Civil Guards Police Headquarters in Madrid. While there, she spoke to Hidalgo. whom she had known for more than three decades. After leading some of Spain's most famous murder and kidnapping investigations, Hidalgo is now a commandante. and helps manage the Civil Guard's 700 strong UCO unit. Airy office at its Madrid headquarters. Where when I visited late last year. A photo of Nada sits on a bookshelf. In his conversation with Sulla He recalled Nada's rescue as a career highlight. The girl was now eighteen, they realized. What had happened to her? Sala was determined to find out. Nada itrab was easy to find. Local news sites had reported that a girl with that name had recently won a 500 Euro prize for the best senior year school essay in L'Hospitalet. Curiously, the reports did not mention she was the same girl kidnapped a decade earlier. Naga, who was now studying business at a local university, Also advertised online as a tutor. Sella wrote to her. saying that she knew Hidalgo well. And they both wanted to find out how she was. Might they meet? Nada told me her instinctive reaction was no. She did not want to hash over her past, especially with a journalist. The Bolivia affair was a distant, shameful secret. Something she had deliberately erased. But the mention of Hidalgo intrigued her. A month passed before she agreed to meet. By coincidence. Sala had also grown up in Los Pitalet. In fact, they later discovered they had both lived as children in the same apartment block. opposite the Barcelona Regional Metro's Gan Vidalet station. They arranged to meet at the station at midday on the 27th of November, 2022. Sala waited in the winter sun. with her small black lurcher dog be stun. When Nada arrived. Salah was struck by a calm and dignified stylishness. She wore a blue overcoat. and had her thick black hair twisted in a braid that hung below her waist. In fact, Nada was a bundle nerves at the thought of revisiting a deeply buried trauma. but she had learned to hide such feelings. as Nada laid out the story of her life since her return to Spain. Sulla listened aghast. Catalan authorities had placed her in two different children's homes. where initially Ivalgo visited from time to time. in towns outside Barcelona until she was fourteen. and then return Nada to her parents' squat. There declared guilt in the Bolivia fiasco. Four years later, Nada still lived there. Returning to La Florida. been a ghastly experience. though she had been desperate to leave the nuns, who ran the last of the two children's homes. She lived in fear of her father's temper. Going to bed early without eating just to avoid him. She kept a knife under her pillow. at the local Rubyo Yors High School Nada's teachers saw her crumbling. as she struggled at home and fought to get top grades. She suffered severe anxiety attacks. Hunger, scarcity, abuse. Domestic chaos and anxiety drove her deep into depression. She ran away from home aged fifteen. sleeping on apartment block rooftops and staircases for a week. She contemplated suicide age sixteen. walking around their tiny living room with a knife in her hand. She conjured up a small light in her mind which enabled her to let go of the knife. It represented hope for the future. she said. Once more, her salvation was school. Alba Solsona The history and geography teacher who oversaw her prize winning essay on Palestine, a subject they both felt passionately about. told me Nada always stood out as curious, competitive, and driven. She was more serious than other adolescents. and set on getting good grades, found it hard to make friends. Teachers were told Nada came from an extremely vulnerable background. At home, Nada read assiduously. In class, she was a tenacious debater. As a teacher, she forced you to be at your best, Sul Suna said. As they grew closer, working on the research project, Solsona occasionally suggested there was more to life than good grades. Nada was clear. This was her route out of La Florida. After meeting at Ganvi the Led Metro station on the twenty seventh of november twenty twenty two, Nada and Salah continued their conversation. over a shared plate of patatas con alioli. in the winter sunshine outside a nearby bar, Juanitos. For Nada The meeting was revelatory. She had barely talked about Bolivia since she first returned, and had come to frame it less as a kidnapping by an abusive paedophile. than as a holiday that went wrong. As she and Sulla talked, the truth began to come into focus. Tell me my story. She begged Sala. Sulla was wary of provoking fresh trauma. I'm not a psychologist, she told me. Nevertheless, she sketched out how Nada had been kidnapped, enslaved, and then rescued. Sulla, who had spent her career reporting harrowing stories from around the world. was amazed by the poise and resilience of the woman in front of her. She was a survivor. Sala told me. She was also indignant that the Katalang government had never formalized Nada's residency status. Even though she had lived in Spain since she was four. and, as a victim of people trafficking, automatically qualified for permanent residency. Instead, as an undocumented Moroccan immigrant. Nada was not permitted to work. Nor could she apply for student grants. When Salah offered to help Starting by ensuring she gained legal residency. Nada was unsure how to respond. A month after their first meeting, in late December 2022, She went to Sala's house in Barcelona. with a surprising request. She didn't just want help, Nada explained. She had heroines whose lives she studied and books she read. Young women like Malala Yusafsai Pakistani education activist shot in the head by radical Islamists in 2012. and the Yazidi woman, Nadia Murad. who had been enslaved by ISIS in Iraq when she was twenty one. These women had used their suffering to campaign. Nada wanted to do the same. I want my story to make abused and enslaved children visible. she announced. Together. Over the months that followed, they hatched a plan. Nada would learn to tell her story in public. and together they would work on a book and a documentary. With Salah's help. Nada had her residency approved. Nada also switched her university course to law and international relations. to better prepare her for a life of advocacy. Yet even as she forged ahead, Nada was haunted by terrible nightmares. A violent men. Chasing her through forests or threatening urban lands. Salafal Neda, a psychologist. and took her to an animal therapy center run by a friend. when Nada spent time with horses. One day, the owner asked Nada to speak with a group of executives who had arrived for a course. For the first time she told her story to strangers. Nada was bemused to see them weep. Soon. Salah ceased to think of Nada as the protagonist in a story that she would cover as a journalist. She thought of her as she told me. second daughter. The relationship filled an emotional need for Sulla. Now fifty six. after three decades of reporting on victims of crime and catastrophe. It has become an all-consuming, emotionally exhausting and so far financially draining project. I've told lots of stories of hardship. Salah told me. If I can help just one of them make it. then it will be worth the effort. Through all this, Nada continued living with her family in La Florida. Even though her father's frightening rages and the evictions from their squatted apartments continued. Though Sulla was convinced that her family were, in fact, the greatest danger to Nada's future. Neither wanted to support her mother. and be present for her two younger brothers. There was another reason for not leaving home. Nada had discovered religion while at school. Aged sixteen, she had watched TikTok videos of people reciting the Quran. Which had soothed her anxieties. Her parents were not religious. But she began reading the Quran and Hideths. The sayings and deeds of Muhammad finding lessons about forgiveness, love and peace. The trick, she said. was to answer evil with goodness. In her mind that meant pardoning her parents and even Morales. Strangely, her encounter with him had not put her off religion. My first contact with God was when I asked how someone like him could claim to believe in God. And that was the day that he stabbed me through the foot. She said. Early in 2024. Sala found a women's refuge that offered a small studio flat in a town outside Barcelona. But Nada worried that this contravened an Islamic duty to her family. One day that summer, after visiting a contemporary art museum in Barcelona, She wandered into the Santa Maria del Mar Basilica. A soaring fourteenth century gothic building. A Roman Catholic priest was standing near the altar. Inviting people to confess. She decided to ask for his help. Perhaps he could advise her. In the confession box. Once more she discovered the power of her story. As she spoke, the priest wept in great gulping sobs. I've never seen anyone cry like that. She said. He was really suffering. When the priest recovered, he advised Nada to move out. You need to escape and start a new life. when police turned up at the family squat to evict them in november twenty twenty four. She finally accepted the offer of the studio. When Nada moved in, she felt joyful and free. It was the first time she had experienced domestic peace, and only she had the key. There was another pull on her attention. Her mother had found her a job, and as the receptionist in a block of self-catering apartments. popular with wealthy Eastern European and Russian Mafia members. The men loved her. One took her shopping. and to exclusive restaurants. Sala and Nada argued about whether she should ever accept anything from them. Eventually, Nada tired of these men's attention. When they see you are poor, they think they have power. She told me. If Nada had felt tempted by luxury, It wasn't just because that was the opposite of poverty, but also because the plan with Sulla seemed to be stalling. Nobody wanted their documentary. or not with the campaigning seriousness they insisted it should have. Publishers shrugged at their book proposal. If she had been white and not Moroccan, things would have been different. said Salah. By now, Nada was heavily invested in the project. With Salah's encouragement, she switched to law and international relations. This fitted her new aims and was more fulfilling. but was riskier in terms of future employment. What if the plan didn't work? With no family safety net, failure could still mean a squat in La Florida. Since Sulla's old media contacts didn't seem interested, Nada went directly to Urisabat. One of Spain's best known YouTubers. When Sulla found out, she was furious that Neda had blown the exclusivity of her personal story. fearing that it had hurt the chances of landing the documentary or publishing deal that was meant to set her up to finish her studies and give her independence. They did not speak for a month. Once they had patched up their differences, they Sala steered Nadar onto popular mainstream morning television talk shows. On the first of these appearances on Antenadres in early September 2025, Nada told her story. explaining that she forgave Morales, who had by now died in jail. When you forgive, you don't do it because the other person deserves it. she explained. I do this because my heart deserves to live free of rancor. The studio audience enthusiastically. Since they were in Madrid. Salah took Nada to see Ialgo. The entire UCO headquarters seemed thrilled by her visit. and Nada discovered that her case was legendary. Several artifacted with her, and pockets got on, and a notebook kept by Morales. had long been display in a glass cabinet. It was a special case from the very start. Ivalgo told me. Any other child would have died. But she is a chameleon. She can adapt to anything. Seeing her again was an emotional high. It was the same Nudha, so very bright and quick. He said. Nada had a lump in her throat as she tried not to cry. I could see how much my life had meant to them. She said. Hidalgo invited her to come back and help him train agents dealing with trafficking victims. On the 14th of September 2025 Barcelona's La Vanguardia newspaper run a story about their reunion. And told of Nada's double tragedy. First the kidnapping. than her abandonment by the Catalan authorities. The article brought their project back to life. Suddenly. Publishers and television producers wanted to talk. A few days later. I began travelling regularly to Barcelona from my home in Madrid to meet Nada. I was curious about her backstory, her ambition, and her relationship with Sulla. We spoke for hours, sitting across a small dinner table at Sala's house. A two story home tucked down a private alley close to the Barque Well. with its outlandish Gauthi decorations. Conversations were often three way affairs, with Sulla present. Nada felt at home here. nipping into the kitchen to make herself hot chocolate. Their bond had been strengthened up by the up and down nature of their project, including disagreements. Sala was straight talking and loving. fretting about Nada's eating or chastising her for overdressing for television appearances. You can't turn up looking like Angelina Jolie. Nada shrugged. She always arrived immaculately dressed and made up. Her calm and candid eloquence hid a fidgety energy. To begin with, she toy with anything on the table, including my tape recorder. These conversations became like watching a box being slowly opened. Nada was excavating her own past. Reading police and court documents for more details about what happened to her. Preparing to sue the Catalan government for three hundred thousand euros for negligence from an intern placement at a law firm in Barcelona. and digging up memories with the help of psychologists. She was filling huge gaps while trying to understand them. She struggled, especially to work out her parents, whom she did not want to discuss. In some ways. Things were happening too quickly. During this time. She appeared on more TV shows. Her polished presence and moderate tone. contrasting with the horrors of her story. The American Spanish Language Channel Univisión. Broadcast a report on her. By now, she was receiving three emails a week from abused girls and young women around the world. including some from the Amin Bu cult. Nada roadback. or had video chats with them. though she could do little more than listen and express sympathy. At the same time she was studying for her law degree. Writing her book with Sulla. Interning at the law firm and preparing her claim against the Catalan government. By December, she was exhausted. clumps of her hair began falling out. She was determined to tough it out, but her body was betraying her. On a sunny winter morning, we drove in Sala's utilitarian gray, Toyota Pro Acevan. with her dog Piston to La Florida. And walked around the cemetery where Neddy used to fill water bottles. For Salah, whose father is buried here. This was a first. Nada had always asked to stay away from her parents' Barrio when they met. Even now, the Nada fretted about bumping into her father, since her parents were angry about her television appearances. By January, when she had used the book advance to buy her family furniture. Their attitude had softened. They now realise that I will inevitably tell my story and have changed. She said. We visited the run down block where Morales had been their neighbour. and wandered past the apartment with broken windows where her family now squats. As we walked. Nada declared that La Florida would be one of her causes too. I'm proud of this place, she said. She recalled the delinquency, drugs and fights. One year youths torch the Christmas tree in the main bluffer. But also remembers it as a neighborly place full of life. As we drove away from La Florida, Neda told me her dream was to speak to the UN about the need to fight child trafficking. This determination has a cost. The last time we met, at the end of January, Nada was going through a punishing, intensive round of therapy to overcome her dissociation from what has happened to her. Some of the pain locked away more than a decade ago was now beginning to show. It was like removing a mask, she said, and very scary. I consider myself strong, she told me. So if I'm suffering. Imagine what it's like for someone who doesn't have the things I now have. Nada's way of coping involves throwing herself harder into her fight. In a recent WhatsA message, she told me that she had a letter ready for the well-known human rights barrister Amal Cluny. Who has represented Nadia Murad. A Nobel Peaze winner, like Nada's other heroine. Malala Yusafs. I want to ask her advice. Nada said. She was going to send it once this article was published. Knowing Nada, it will be on its way tomorrow. Thanks again for listening to The Guardian Longread. was any other child would have died. The Miraculous Survival of Nada Itrab by Giles Tremlett. Read by Nora Lopez Holden. and produced by Nicola Alexandru. The executive producer was Ellie Bury. For more Guardian longreads in text and a selection in audio, go to theguardian.com forward slash longread. This is the Guardian.