Riada talks to Wai Wai Nu, a prominent Rohingya activist, former political prisoner, and founder of the Women Peace Network in Myanmar

Dignified Resilience with Riada Akyol

Wow! It was truly a special privilege to have Wai Wai Nu as my guest. She is a former political prisoner and the co-founder of Justice for Women. She is also the founder and director of the Women Peace Network Arakan. Wai Wai and her family belong to the Rohingya minority, a severely oppressed and marginalized people in Rakhine state in Myanmar. In fact, the United Nations has described the Rohingya “as the most persecuted minority in the world.” Additionally, in November 2019, Gambia brought official case at the International Court of Justice, alleging that Myanmar committed genocide against the Rohingya, which of course the government staunchly denies. Wai Wai has been incredibly vocal about her tough experiences: she spent seven years as a political prisoner in Burma because of her father’s pro-democracy political activism. Ever since she was released, she dedicated herself towards her own education, and also towards women's empowerment, peace building and reduction of discrimination in her country. In this episode, we talked about Wai Wai's own tough experiences in prison, what she learned observing women prisoners, and why she refers to that period as "University of Life." We also discussed the present situation on the ground in terms of the multifaceted challenges that keep her people very vulnerable to bigger tragedies, the impact of the global pandemic on the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and in Myanmar, as well as her personal and professional efforts in struggle for preserving Rohingya's basic human rights. Wai Wai is a determined and compassionate leader, and she shared candidly and powerfully her expectations on ending this "men made disaster," the suffering of her people, and visions for restoring Rohingya's dignity. Towards the end, we also had a beautiful exchange about the importance of feeling the support and care, as she's been receiving it from a Burmese family that she is staying with right now while in the U.S., why she would like to learn how to cook better and the inspiring words that her dad shared with her about his own activism. This was such a meaningful conversation for me, and Wai Wai is truly a role model of dignified resilience in my opinion. I hope that you also appreciate listening this conversation. I want to add that Wai Wai was selected as a World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader (2018), she has been named as a Next Generation Leader by Time magazine (2017), recognized as one of the “100 World Thinkers,” Foreign Policy (2015), listed as one of the “100 Top Women,” BBC (2014). The list goes on and on.