Thread by @brhodes

1. When you hear about distant events in a place like Myanmar, it's important to remember that there are exceptional and courageous individuals like Daw Zin Mar Aung who are risking more than most people ever will on behalf of a better future for her community and nation.

https://twitter.com/ZweLwinMyanmar/status/1386801788469366784

2. She was imprisoned in 1998 and given a sentence that stretched out for decades, often blindfolded and kept in solitary confinement. She was 22 years old when she was sentenced.

3. Her courage and commitment to universal values led her to receive the U.S. government's international woman of courage award shortly after she was released from prison during the early days of Myanmar's opening. flickr.com/photos/stateph…

4. I met her when I was working in the White House, and she always had a blend of uncompromising idealism and political pragmatism. She knew the odds were long for democracy, but she saw no alternative to doing the work.

5. She was the driving force behind the growth of civil society focused on democracy, empowering women, and promoting tolerance.

6. She was elected to parliament as a rising star in the National League for Democracy (NLD), and in my last years in government I was struck by how much she represented the kind of future that the people of Myanmar deserved.

7. When I travelled to Myanmar in 2017 to talk with the government team trying to negotiate peace with different ethnic groups, she was determined to find a way to build a federal union that could use democracy to promote peace and reconciliation.

8. When I travelled to Myanmar in 2018 to report this piece on the challenges that the country was facing, she spoke as a politician who wanted government to address the concerns of her constituents: providing education, opportunity, and basic services. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

9. Now that her country is once again facing the kind of military rule that put her in prison, she is a leading voice for a broad, diverse, and resilient movement for democracy that is the legitimate voice of the people of Myanmar.

10. Zin Mar Aung - and many like her - deserve the attention and solidarity of the wider world. We must never forget that underneath the distant headlines, there are people like of her of extraordinary courage and character.