Society & Culture
Ma Thida is a major figure in the struggle for democracy in Myanmar. A surgeon and writer she was initially happy to go to prison to gain experience to write a prison memoir. However after years in solitary confinement it was only mindfulness meditation and books she had smuggled into jail that got her through. She speaks to Earshot for this special series marking the anniverary of PEN International from an undisclosed location she has fled to after the February coup in Myanmar.