Countries represented:
United Kingdom
Cohort:
Bologna, Italy 2021
Hira Aftab is a strategic communications specialist and decolonial practitioner with over eight years of experience across the humanitarian and international development sectors. Her work spans access to justice, refugee support, and youth programming, with a strong focus on advancing decolonial processes and shifting power through storytelling for narrative change. Previously she has worked for organisations including the British Red Cross, UN agencies, and EU-supported initiatives across the UK, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.
Hira has expertise in strategic communications, and start-up leadership. She has designed and led high-impact communications and engagement strategies, working closely with senior leadership and cross-functional teams to deliver measurable outcomes. Her approach centres on reframing dominant narratives, amplifying lived experience, and embedding equity into institutional strategy and practice.
She is the Founder of Our World Too, an organisation dedicated to re-humanising narratives surrounding refugees and displaced communities globally, and Co-Founder of The Hybrid Tours, a travel company that combines travel with social impact. Hira holds an MA in International Relations from the University of Nottingham and an MSc in Humanitarianism, Conflict and Development from the University of Bath.
