What is Aung San Suu Kyi famous for?

Aung San Suu Kyi AC is a Burmese politician, diplomat, and author who served as Myanmar’s State Counsellor and Foreign Minister from 2016 to 2021.

Aung San Suu Kyi rose to prominence during the 8 August 1988 Uprising and became General Secretary of the NLD, which she had recently formed with the assistance of several retired army officials who criticised the military junta.

The NLD won 81% of the seats in Parliament in the 1990 elections, but the results were overturned because the military government refused to hand over power, resulting in an international outcry.

She had been detained prior to the elections and had been under house arrest for nearly 15 of the 21 years between 1989 and 2010, becoming one of the world’s most prominent political prisoners.

Time magazine named her one of Gandhi’s “Children of Gandhi” and his spiritual heir to nonviolence in 1999. She survived an assassination attempt during the 2003 Depayin massacre, in which at least 70 NLD members were killed.