Wai Wai Nu is a Rohingya Burmese activist and the director and founder of Women’s Peace Network. Nu was a political prisoner for seven years under the Burmese military government, and emerged to serve as a national – and international – voice for Burma’s human rights and democracy movement. After seeing the country’s escalating violence upon her release in 2012, Nu founded the Women’s Peace Network to build peace and mutual understanding between Burma’s different ethnicities, and to advocate for the rights of marginalized women in Arakan, Burma. Through the Women’s Peace Network, Nu has conducted women’s empowerment trainings, offered legal education seminars, and organized human rights and peacebuilding activities.

After completing her law degree in 2014, Nu founded Justice for Women, which operates as a network of female lawyers providing legal consultation and education for the women of Burma. In 2016, Nu founded the Yangon Youth Center, where young people learn and explore their ideas and promote leadership in society, politics, and peacebuilding. Nu was selected as one of BBC’s 100 Top Women in 2014 and one of Foreign Policy’s 100 World Thinkers in 2015.