Copy of July Women of Power Issue 2025

“From Acid to Advocacy: The Work That Heals Beyond the Scars” By Hanifa Nakiryowa

about the moment when pain is transformed into purpose. I didn’t choose the acid. But I chose what would follow. When I stood screaming outside my ex-husband’s home in 2011, feeling my face dissolve, I had no idea that a movement had just been born. At that time, all I could feel was the fire—on my skin, in my soul, and eventually in my daughter’s cry when she too was caught in the acid’s path. The hospital became my home for months. And while my body slowly recovered, it was my spirit that made the greatest decision of my life: I would not be just a victim. I would become a voice. There is something strange and sacred...

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