{{Short description|Burmese human rights activist, writer, surgeon}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2019}} {{family name hatnote|lang=Burmese|Ma Thida}} {{Infobox person | name = Ma Thida | native_name = {{nobold|မသီတာ}} | native_name_lang = my | other_names = | image = Author Ma Thida.jpg | alt = | caption = Thida in 2025 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1966|9|2}} | birth_place = Myanmar | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} or {{Death-date and age|Month DD, YYYY|Month DD, YYYY}} (death date then birth date) --> | death_place = | education = | years_active = | party = | parents = | children = | known_for = Human rights works, former Political prisoner | occupation = {{hlist|Surgeon|writer|human rights activist}} | criminal_charge = | alma_mater = | criminal_penalty = | criminal_status = }} '''Ma Thida''' ({{MYname|MY=မသီတာ|MLCTS=ma. si ta}}; born 2 September 1966 is a Burmese surgeon, writer, human rights activist and former prisoner of conscience.<ref name="Tha">{{cite web |url=http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/23170 |title=I Write Just to Be 'A Good Citizen,' Says Ma Thida |work=The Irrawaddy |first=Kyaw Phyo |last=Tha |date=January 5, 2013 |access-date=January 8, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130105094712/http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/23170 |archive-date=2013-01-05 }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Tha"/> She has worked as an editor at a Burmese monthly youth magazine and a weekly newspaper.<ref name="Tha"/> She has been a surgeon at Muslim Free Hospital, which provides free services to the poor.<ref name="Kapur"/>
==Life and works== Ma Thida studied medicine in the early 1980s earning a degree in surgery, and also took up writing at a young age.<ref name="Tha"/> She said, "I wanted to become a writer because I want to share what I observe around me, like poverty."<ref name="Tha"/> Her interest in health care developed after falling ill as a child.<ref name="Tha"/>
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."<ref name="Kapur">{{cite web |url=http://www.thehindu.com/arts/magazine/article114452.ece |title=I write from my heart |work=The Hindu |first=Mita |last=Kapur |date=February 27, 2010 |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20130216223215/http://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/i-write-from-my-heart/article114452.ece |archivedate=February 16, 2013 |url-status=dead |access-date=January 10, 2013 }}</ref> In fact, she was actively supporting Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate and founder of the main opposition party in Burma.<ref name="Baker">{{cite web |url=https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2008/09/thida-imprisonment-a-temporary-death |title=Thida: Imprisonment a temporary death |work=Brown Daily Herald |first=Christopher |last=Baker |date=September 26, 2008 |access-date=January 9, 2013 }}</ref> She served nearly six years in unhealthy, mostly solitary conditions. She contracted tuberculosis without adequate access to medical care.<ref name="Pwint"/> 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).<ref name="Tha"/> Ma Thida said, "Were it not for vipassana (Buddhist meditation), I would not have overcome the untold hardships I faced in prison."<ref name="Tha"/> In 1999, she was released on "humanitarian grounds" after serving five years, six months and six days.<ref name="Kapur"/> She was released due to declining health, increasing political pressure and the efforts of human rights organizations like Amnesty International and PEN International.<ref name="Baker"/> Later she chaired the ''Pen Myanmar''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ifoa.org/participants/dr-ma-thida |title=Dr. Ma Thida |work=International Festival of Authors |year=2015 |access-date=August 13, 2015 |archive-date=February 2, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202034810/http://ifoa.org/participants/dr-ma-thida |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1996 she received the award of year's PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write while she was still in prison.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bio: Ma Thida |work=PEN America |access-date=2025-09-24 |url=https://pen.org/writer-at-risk/ma-thida/ }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Tha"/>
Her first book is ''The Sunflower'', which was only released in Burma in 1999, as it was banned upon international release in the early 1990s.<ref name="Tha"/> The book argues that the Burmese people have high expectations of democracy icon Suu Kyi that made her "a prisoner of applause."<ref name="Tha"/> ''The Roadmap'' (2012) is a fictional story based on events in Burmese politics from 1988 to 2009.<ref name="Tha"/> 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.<ref name="Pwint">{{cite web |url=http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/lifestyle/3178-author-tells-of-health-problems-inhumane-prison-conditions.html |title=Author tells of health problems, inhumane prison conditions |work=The Myanmar Times |first=Zon Pann |last=Pwint |date=November 19, 2012 |access-date=January 9, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121128011606/http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/lifestyle/3178-author-tells-of-health-problems-inhumane-prison-conditions.html |archive-date=2012-11-28 }}</ref>
In 2016, the English translation of her prison memoir ''Sanchaung, Insein, Harvard'' was published as ''Prisoner of Conscience: My Steps through Insein''.<ref>{{Cite web |first=Lae |last=Myint |url=https://www.mmtimes.com/lifestyle/22145-prisoner-of-conscience-my-steps-through-insein-launches-in-english.html|title='Prisoner of Conscience : My steps Through Insein' launches in English|date=2016-08-25|website=The Myanmar Times|language=en|access-date=2019-07-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190729072336/https://www.mmtimes.com/lifestyle/22145-prisoner-of-conscience-my-steps-through-insein-launches-in-english.html |archive-date=2019-07-29 }}</ref>
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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vhlf.org/news/vaclav-havel-library-foundation-names-burmese-writer-ma-thida-winner-of-disturbing-the-peace-award/|title=Vaclav Havel Library Foundation Names Burmese Writer Ma Thida Winner of 'Disturbing the Peace' Award |work=The Vaclav Havel Library Foundation|language=en-US|date=September 8, 2016 |access-date=2019-07-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161005201051/http://www.vhlf.org/news/vaclav-havel-library-foundation-names-burmese-writer-ma-thida-winner-of-disturbing-the-peace-award/ |archive-date=2016-10-05 }}</ref> In 2016, she was elected to the board of PEN International at 82nd PEN International Congress held in Galician, Spain.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://penclubtrieste.blogspot.com/2016/10/82-congresso-del-pen-international.html|title=Pen Club Trieste: 82° Congresso Del Pen International a Ourense - Spagna|last=Rocca|first=A. della|date=2016-10-05|website=PEN Club Trieste|access-date=2019-07-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241203193314/https://penclubtrieste.blogspot.com/2016/10/82-congresso-del-pen-international.html |archive-date=2024-12-03 }}</ref> She was previously president of PEN Myanmar. She is the chair of the Writer in prison committee of PEN International.
She left Myanmar in 2021, soon after the military seized power in a coup.<ref>{{cite web |last=Scott |first=Liam |title=Exile is a temporary state of mind for Burmese writer Ma Thida |work=Voice of America |date=May 13, 2024 |access-date=2025-09-24 |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/exile-is-a-temporary-state-of-mind-for-burmese-writer-ma-thida/7609245.html }}</ref>
==Works== *''The Sunflower'' (1999) *''In the Shade of an Indian Almond Tree'' (1999) *''Sweet and spicy honey mud'' (1999) *''Insight of colorful lights and beyond esthetic border'' (1999) *''One, Zero and Ten for Teens'' (2003) *''Message to Teen'' (2011) *''Translation of Japanese Women's Poems'' (2011) *''The Roadmap'' (2011) *''Sanchaung, Insein, Harvard'' (2012) *''A Letter for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi'' (2013) *''The Imperishable Dictum'' (2014) *''Brown to Crimson'' (2014)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://integrity20.org/speakers/ma-thida/|title=Ma Thida |work=Integrity 20|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-29 |publisher=Griffith University |date=2016 }}</ref> *''What Is Independent Citizen's Spirit?'' (2014) *''Youths Who Dare To Live and Compete''(2014) *''Nothing to Lose But Your Life'' (2015) *''From Selfishness to Leaving From Fear''(2015) *''Prisoner of Conscience: My Steps through Insein'' (2016) *''Writing of Ma Thida'' (2016) *''A-Maze: Myanmar’s Struggle for Democracy, 2011-2023'' (2024)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20100108201340/http://www.uib.no/isf/people/amnesty/thidabrv.htm Ma Thida] at Amnesty International
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Category:Living people Category:1966 births Category:Burmese writers Category:Burmese editors Category:Burmese surgeons Category:Burmese prisoners and detainees Category:Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Myanmar Category:Victims of human rights abuses Category:Burmese human rights activists Category:International Writing Program alumni Category:Burmese memoirists Category:Burmese women medical doctors