My good friend, Hanifa Nakiryowa, @hanakiryowa has lit a fire. As a young Muslim girl in Uganda she was held hostage by her Economics professor at an elite University: “sleep with me or you will not graduate”. That was how she was forced into a violent, abusive marriage. When she took her two little girls and fled for her life, he sent a man to her home to come out of the shadows and melt her face with acid. More than a hundred surgeries later, Hanifa is still standing up for herself & all victims of acid attacks, while the man who did this to her is still teaching at the same University in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. Rather than live in shame, Hanifa lifted her Muslim veil years ago to show her scars and her pain. She started a movement then that has erupted today with the publishing of her story in a book called “Hanifa”. Now girls and women across Uganda & other African countries are stepping forward to demand justice for Hanifa & themselves, revealing a deeply-rooted system of academic coercion using sexual bribery & rape at Mkerere University, the Harvard of Uganda. Now the man who got away with attempted murder of Hanifa is exposed as the university continues to cover for the sexual predators embedded in its academic ranks. Hanifa found refuge years ago in America and is now a citizen. She has raised two spectacular young women on her own. But she has never turned her back on her home or the victims of acid attacks and with the little she has, does everything she can to help through her foundation, CERESAV. We met a long time ago and I was captivated by her courage and her strength. It is inspiring to stand next to her and with her and feel that you are in the presence of a warrior who was a victim for a moment, but not for life. In spite of the scars that still torment, she is beautiful. In spite of her suffering, she has peace. She knows who she is and has never let fear or violence strip her of her sanity or her joy. I urge you to find her book “Hanifa” on Amazon, perhaps sign the petition if you feel so inclined and consider that all over the world, right now, this is happening to someone else. Acid attacks are rising across the west and America is no exception.