At a time of growing global awareness about injustices against women, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to two people who have brought attention to the most extreme forms of violence they can face: a Congolese surgeon who treats victims of wartime rape and an activist who was a sexual slave of the Islamic State.

In recognizing Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad, the Norwegian Nobel Committee for the first time has devoted its award to the abuse of women in conflict zones — what some experts say has been an underappreciated aspect of war.

Mukwege has treated grievous injuries in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country that one U.N. official once called the rape capital of the world. Murad is among thousands of Iraqi Yazidis who have been treated as sexual property by the Islamic State, and since her escape she has become perhaps the most outspoken among them, campaigning to bring the militants to justice for war crimes.