She is the daughter of General Aung San, founding father of Burma, who was assassinated when she was only two years old.
Suu Kyi was educated in India and the United Kingdom. In 1988 she returned to Burma to care for her sick mother. Upon her arrival, she found a country in the midst of a popular revolution against the military government that she had ruled since 1962.
She joined the opposition to the military government and became a charismatic leader of the democracy movement. In 1989 she was placed under house arrest by the military government. She remained in this condition for 15 years.
Under this confinement she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. In 2010 she was released and five years later her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won the general elections. That made her State Counselor of Burma, a position equivalent to that of prime minister.
In 2021 she was overthrown by the army, which arrested her and charged her with several crimes, including corruption and sedition. Suu Kyi remains an important figure in Burmese politics, although her legacy has been questioned by her response to ethnic violence in Burma, especially against the Rohingya.
