Ma Thida

Ma Thida is a Burmese human rights activist, surgeon, writer, and former prisoner of conscience. She was arrested and spent six years in Insein prison in the late 1990s but was released after extensive international pressure. She has published twenty six books, including her prison memoir Prisoner of Conscience: My Steps Through Insein available in English. She is currently living in exile in Germany. She is the Chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison committee and received some international acclaimed awards including the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award.