One of the greatest Asian women, Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi has spent almost 15 years in house arrest, many times spending time in prison as well for protesting against the military junta in Myanmar. She was released in 2010.
She was awarded Nobel peace prize in 1991.
She is the daughter of Aung San who negotiated Burmese freedom from British government in 1945 and later assassinated by political rival. Her mother Khin Kyi was Burmese ambassador for India and Nepal in 1960.
Suu Kyi was married to Micheal Aris in 1972 when she was working in UN. But later when she returned in Burma, he was denied entry visa. Even when he was ailing with Prostrate cancer, and many world leaders pleaded for his visa, the Burmese government denied him the visa, instead asking Suu kyi to leave the country and visit him. She did not do so, as she was afraid, when she wants to return, she would be denied the visa.
In 1990 elections, her party won 80% of parliament seats and she would have become the prime minister, but the military government nullified the result and denied to hand over the power.
Since then she has spent most of her time in either house arrest or prison. When in 2008 cyclone, the roof of her house collapsed and electricity was lost, she was denied a generator and she had to spend her evening in darkness.
Reference : Wikipedia article
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