Ma Thida | |
---|---|
မသီတာ | |
Born |
c. 1966 (age 58) |
Nationality | Burmese |
Occupations |
|
Known for | Human rights works, former Political prisoner |
Ma Thida ( Burmese: မသီတာ; MLCTS: ma. si ta; born c. 1966) is a Burmese surgeon, writer, human rights activist and former prisoner of conscience. [1] She has published under the pseudonym Suragamika which means "brave traveler". In Myanmar, Thida is best known as a leading intellectual, whose books deal with the country's political situation. [1] She has worked as an editor at a Burmese monthly youth magazine and a weekly newspaper. [1] She has been a surgeon at Muslim Free Hospital, which provides free services to the poor. [2]
Ma Thida studied medicine in the early 1980s earning a degree in surgery, and also took up writing at a young age. [1] She said, "I wanted to become a writer because I want to share what I observe around me, like poverty." [1] Her interest in health care developed after falling ill as a child. [1]
In October 1993, she was sentenced to 20 years in Insein Prison for "endangering public peace, having contact with illegal organisations, and distributing unlawful literature." [2] In fact, she was actively supporting Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate and founder of the main opposition party in Burma. [3] She served nearly six years in unhealthy, mostly solitary conditions. She contracted tuberculosis without adequate access to medical care. [4] During this time she was awarded several international human rights awards, including the Reebok Human Rights Award (1996) and the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award (1996). [1] Ma Thida said, "Were it not for vipassana (Buddhist meditation), I would not have overcome the untold hardships I faced in prison." [1] In 1999, she was released on "humanitarian grounds" after serving five years, six months and six days. [2] She was released due to declining health, increasing political pressure and the efforts of human rights organizations like Amnesty International and PEN International. [3] Later she chaired the Pen Myanmar. [5] In 1996 she received the award of year's PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write but she was still in prison until 1999. [6]
From 2008 to 2010, she lived in the US as an International Writers Project Fellow at Brown University and a Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University. [1]
Her first book was The Sunflower, which was only released in Burma in 1999, as it was banned upon international release in the early 1990s. [1] The book argues that the Burmese people have high expectations of democracy icon Suu Kyi that made her "a prisoner of applause." [1] The Roadmap (2012) is a fictional story based on events in Burmese politics from 1988 to 2009. [1] The Myanmar-language book Sanchaung, Insein, Harvard is a memoir, as the title suggests, about her early life in Sanchaung, imprisonment in Insein, and time in the United States. [4]
In the month of July 2016, the English translation of her prison memoir "Sanchaung, Insein, Harvard" was published worldwide with the title of "Prisoner of Conscience: My Steps through Insein" by Silkworm, publishing house in Thailand. [7]
She was honored with the 2016 'Disturbing the Peace' award given by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation, for her humanitarian values and for having suffered unjust persecution for her beliefs. [8] In 2016, she was elected to the board of PEN International at 82nd PEN International Congress held in Galician, Spain. [9]
Ma Thida | |
---|---|
မသီတာ | |
Born |
c. 1966 (age 58) |
Nationality | Burmese |
Occupations |
|
Known for | Human rights works, former Political prisoner |
Ma Thida ( Burmese: မသီတာ; MLCTS: ma. si ta; born c. 1966) is a Burmese surgeon, writer, human rights activist and former prisoner of conscience. [1] She has published under the pseudonym Suragamika which means "brave traveler". In Myanmar, Thida is best known as a leading intellectual, whose books deal with the country's political situation. [1] She has worked as an editor at a Burmese monthly youth magazine and a weekly newspaper. [1] She has been a surgeon at Muslim Free Hospital, which provides free services to the poor. [2]
Ma Thida studied medicine in the early 1980s earning a degree in surgery, and also took up writing at a young age. [1] She said, "I wanted to become a writer because I want to share what I observe around me, like poverty." [1] Her interest in health care developed after falling ill as a child. [1]
In October 1993, she was sentenced to 20 years in Insein Prison for "endangering public peace, having contact with illegal organisations, and distributing unlawful literature." [2] In fact, she was actively supporting Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate and founder of the main opposition party in Burma. [3] She served nearly six years in unhealthy, mostly solitary conditions. She contracted tuberculosis without adequate access to medical care. [4] During this time she was awarded several international human rights awards, including the Reebok Human Rights Award (1996) and the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award (1996). [1] Ma Thida said, "Were it not for vipassana (Buddhist meditation), I would not have overcome the untold hardships I faced in prison." [1] In 1999, she was released on "humanitarian grounds" after serving five years, six months and six days. [2] She was released due to declining health, increasing political pressure and the efforts of human rights organizations like Amnesty International and PEN International. [3] Later she chaired the Pen Myanmar. [5] In 1996 she received the award of year's PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write but she was still in prison until 1999. [6]
From 2008 to 2010, she lived in the US as an International Writers Project Fellow at Brown University and a Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University. [1]
Her first book was The Sunflower, which was only released in Burma in 1999, as it was banned upon international release in the early 1990s. [1] The book argues that the Burmese people have high expectations of democracy icon Suu Kyi that made her "a prisoner of applause." [1] The Roadmap (2012) is a fictional story based on events in Burmese politics from 1988 to 2009. [1] The Myanmar-language book Sanchaung, Insein, Harvard is a memoir, as the title suggests, about her early life in Sanchaung, imprisonment in Insein, and time in the United States. [4]
In the month of July 2016, the English translation of her prison memoir "Sanchaung, Insein, Harvard" was published worldwide with the title of "Prisoner of Conscience: My Steps through Insein" by Silkworm, publishing house in Thailand. [7]
She was honored with the 2016 'Disturbing the Peace' award given by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation, for her humanitarian values and for having suffered unjust persecution for her beliefs. [8] In 2016, she was elected to the board of PEN International at 82nd PEN International Congress held in Galician, Spain. [9]