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Dissident Freedom Activists Worldwide

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Alekseeva, Ali, Andrews de Miranda, Aquino and 12 others
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Profiles

Freedom Activist Dissidents

Burma

  • Aung San Suu Kyi, the soft-spoken, iconic political activist whom devotees call simply "the Lady." ] She remained under house arrest in Burma for almost 15 of the 21 years from 20 July 1989 until her most recent release on 13 November 2010, becoming one of the world's most prominent political prisoners.

In June2012 Aung San Suu Kyi finally was able to accept her 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. She used the occasion to remind the world of those like her, who struggle in the most forlorn places:

"To be forgotten too is to die a little. It is to lose some of the links that anchor us to the rest of humanity."

It is a sentiment still felt from Aleppo to Havana, Pyongyang to Tehran, but also, as Aung San Suu Kyi and Thein Sein have shown, one that doesn't need to be permanent.

Congo

A war taking place in the heart of Africa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and more people have died there than in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Darfur combined!
The most frequent targets of this hidden war are women. It is, in fact, a war against women, and the weapon used to destroy them, their families and whole communities, is rape.

Iran

Syria

Egypt

Tunisia

  • Mohammed Bouazizi The Man Who Set Himself and Tunisia on Fire
  • Sofiene Chourabi - Tunisian dissident and journalist who has been reporting daily on recent events, has published on his Facebook account.

Turkey

China

Estonia

Estonian freedom fighter, writer and right-wing politician. In 1980-1986 was imprisoned for his political views. After his release, he was one of the initiators of MRP-AEG; participated in organisation of several right political movements. Madisson supports strongly Anti-Zionist and revisionist position. In 1996-7 was under arrest in independent Estonia.

Russia

Philippines

Ukraine

Venezuela

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Digital Dissidents

Human rights movement

Larisa Iosifovna Bogoraz (Bogoraz-Brukhman; August 8, 1929 - April 6, 2004) was a dissident in the Soviet Union, participant in the 1968 Red Square demonstration of protest against military suppression of the Prague Spring. Wife of Aleksandr Daniel

Alexander Galich, born Alexander Aronovich Ginzburg, was a Russian poet, prolific screenwriter and playwright, best known for his songs records that widely circulated in Samizdat, and were the reason of Galich's persecution by authorities and, eventually, emigration.

Yuli Markovich Daniel (November 15, 1925 — December 30, 1988) was a Soviet dissident writer, poet, translator, sentenced in 1965 together with Andrey Sinyavsky for publishing his works abroad. First husband of Aleksandr Daniel

Vadim Delaune, the Russian poet and dissident, who participated in the 1968 Red Square demonstration of protest against military suppression of the Prague Spring and a descendant of the last governor of the Bastille, and Irina Belogorodskaya his wife, were arrested in 1972 for involvement in publication of Samizdat - Chronicle of Current Events.

Soviet translator and human rights activist.

Viktor Platonovich Nekrasov (Виктор Платонович Некрасов) (June 17, 1911 – September 3, 1987) was a Russian writer, journalist and editor.

During World War II, he served in the Red Army (1941-1944) and fought in the Battle of Stalingrad. After the war he became a journalist and based his first book Front-line Stalingrad (V okopakh Stalingrada, literal translation In the trenches of Stalingrad, 1946) on his experiences there. The novel was awarded the Stalin Prize for literature in 1947.

In 1959 he was the first Soviet writer to openly call for a monument to be built at Baby Yar.

After Khruschev's ouster in October 1964, Nekrasov joined other Soviet intellectuals in protesting what he saw as the new government's gradual restoration of Stalinism. He signed numerous open letters protesting government policies in 1966-1973 which eventually caused government sanctions against him, including searches in his house and expulsion from the Communist Party which he joined at the frontline. In 1974 he emigrated to France, where he became an associate editor of the emigre magazine Kontinent and made broadcasts at RFE/RL. He died in Paris.

  1. The 25 Sureties of Magna Carta, June 15th, 1215. (800 year celebration)
  2. Abraham Lincoln Brigade
  3. American Abolitionist Movement
  4. Archive of the Inquisition
  5. Banned Authors
  6. Black History - From Reconstruction to the Present (US)
  7. Chinese Dissidents
  8. Conscientious objector
  9. English Dissenters
  10. First World War - British Conscientious Objectors
  11. Heroes of the Holocaust - The Courageous Fighters against Hitler's Nazi Regime
  12. Labor Movement
  13. Social Reformers and Revolutionaries
  14. Terror Victims of Independent Media
  15. The Hollywood Blacklist
  16. United States Civil Rights Movement
  17. Women's Rights / Feminism

Famous Female Indian Freedom Fighters

Rani of Jhansi 

Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi whose heroism and superb leadership laid an outstanding example for all future generations of women freedom fighters. Married to Gangadhar Rao head of the state of Jhansi. She was not allowed to adopt a successor after his death by the British, and Jhansi was annexed. 

With the outbreak of the Revolt she became determined to fight back. She used to go into the battlefield dressed as a man. Holding the reins of there horse in her mouth she used the sword with both hands. Under her leadership the Rani's troops showed undaunted courage and returned shot for shot. Considered by the British as the best and bravest military leader of rebels this sparkling epitome of courage died a hero's death in the battlefield.

Begum Hazrat Mahal  

Begum Hazrat Mahal, the Begaum of Oudh. She took active part in the defence of Lucknow against the British. Although, she was queen and used to a life of luxury, she appeared on the battle-field herself to encourage her troops. Begam Hazrat Mahal held out against the British with all her strength as long as she could. Ultimately she had to give up and take refuge in Nepal.

Madam Cama

"This flag is of Indian Independence! Behold, it is born! It has been made sacred by the blood of young Indians who sacrificed their lives. I call upon you, gentlemen to rise and salute this flag of Indian Independence. In the name of this flag, I appeal to lovers of freedom all over the world to support this flag." -- B. Cama , Stuttgart, Germany.

She unfurled the first National Flag at the International Socialist Conference in Stuttgart (Germany) in 1907. A thousand representatives from several countries were attending. An Indian lady in a colorful sari was a rare phenomena in those days and her majestic appearance and brave and clear words made everybody think that she was a Maharani or at least a princess from a native state. The tricolor-flag Madam Cama unfurled had green, saffron, and red stripes.

  • Red represented strength.
  • Saffron victory
  • Green stood for boldness and enthusiasm.
  • Eight lotuses representing the eight provinces
  • Flowers represented princely states.
  • "Vande Mataram" in Devanagari adorned central saffron stripe which meant "salutation to Mother India."
  • The sun and the moon indicated Hindu and Muslim faiths. The flag was designed by Veer Savarkar with the help of other revolutionaries. The flag was smuggled into India by Indulal Yagnik, the socialist leader of Gujarat. It is now on public display at the Maratha and Kesari Library in Pune 

Arun Asaf Ali

Aruna was born at Kalka, Haryana into a Bengali Brahmo family. She was educated at Lahore and Nainital. She graduated and worked as a teacher, an achievement in itself for women, given the conditions prevalent in the country at that time. She taught at the Gokhale Memorial School in Calcutta. She met Asaf Ali, a leader in the congress party at Allahabad and married him in 1928, despite parental opposition on grounds of religion (she was a Brahmo while he was a Muslim) and age (a difference of more than 20 years).

She became an active member of Congress Party after marriage and participated in public processions during the Salt Satyagraha. She was arrested on the charge that she was a vagrant and hence not released in 1931 under the Gandhi-Irwin Pact which stipulated release of all political prisoners. Other women co-prisoners refused to leave the premises unless she was also released and gave in only after Mahatma Gandhi intervened. A public agitation secured her release.

Kamla Nehru

Many women of the Nehru family too had joined the Civil Disobedience Movement. Kamala Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru's wife gave full support to her husband in his desire to work actively for the freedom struggle. In the Nehru hometown of Allahabad she organized processions, addressed meetings and led picketing of liquor and foreign cloth shops. She played a prominent part in organizing the No Tax Campaign in United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh).

Kamala Kaul Nehru (1899–1936) was the wife of Jawaharlal Nehru, leader of the Indian National Congress and first Prime Minister of India. Kamala married Nehru on 8 February 1916. Their marriage was arranged by his parents.

Vijayalaxmi Pandit

Jawaharlal Nehur's sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit inspired by Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi and impressed by Sarojini Naidu entered the Non Cooperation Movement. She was arrested in 1932 and sent to and sentenced to one year's rigorous imprisonment.

She was arrested in 1940, and yet again during the Quit India Movement. She attended the Pacific Relations Conference at Hot Springs, U.S.A. as leader of the Indian delegation sponsored by the Indian Council of World Affairs. She was present in San Francisco when the U.N first met there, and through numerous well attended public lectures she challenged the British dominated delegates rights to represent India therein.

Sister of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru also played a great role in the freedom movement. She was elected to Uttar Pradesh Assembly in 1936 and in 1946. She was the first woman in India to hold a ministerial rank.

She was imprisoned thrice for taking part in the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1932. 1941 and 1942. After Independence, she continued to serve the country. She was the first woman to become president of the United Nations General Assembly.

Vijaya Lakshmi Nehru Pandit (1900 - 1990) was an Indian diplomat and politician, In 1921 she married Ranjit Sitaram Pandit, who died on January 14, 1944. She was the first Indian woman to hold a cabinet post. In 1937 she was elected to the provincial legislature of the United Provinces and was designated minister of local self-government and public health. She held the latter post until 1939 and again from 1946 to 1947. In 1946 she was elected to the Constituent Assembly from the United Provinces.

Sucheta Kripalani

The contribution of Sucheta Kripalani in the struggle for freedom is also worthy of note. She courted imprisonment for taking part in freedom struggle. She was elected as a member of Constituent Assembly in 1946. She was general secretary of Indian National Congress from 1958 to 1960, and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 1963 to 1967.

Sucheta Kripalani was in the words of Shrimati Indira Gandhi, “a person of rare courage and character who brought credit to Indian womanhood.”

She was born in Ambala, Haryana to a Bengali family. Her father, S.N. Majumdar though a government doctor was a nationalist. Educated at Indraprastha College and St.Stephen's College, Delhi she became a lecturer at the Banaras Hindu University. In 1936, she married socialist, Acharya Kriplani and became involved with the Indian National Congress. 

Like her contemporaries Aruna Asaf Ali and Usha Mehta, she came to the forefront during the Quit India Movement. She later worked closely with Mahatma Gandhi during the Partition riots. She accompanied him to Noakhali in 1946. She was one of the few women who were elected to the Constituent Assembly and was part of the subcommittee that drafted the Indian Constitution. She became a part of the subcommittee that was handed over the task of laying down the charter for the constitution of India. On 15th August, 1947 she sang Vande Mataram in the Independence Session of the Constituent Assembly.

After independence she remained involved with politics in U.P. She was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1952 and 1957 and served as a Minister of State for Small Scale Industries. In 1962, she was elected to the U.P Assembly from Kanpur and served in the Cabinet in 1962. In 1963, she became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the first woman to hold that position in any Indian state. The highlight of her tenure was the firm handling of a state employees strike. The first-ever strike by the state employees which continued for 62 days took place during her regime. She relented only when the employees' leaders agreed for compromise. Although the wife of a socialist, Kriplani cemented her reputation as a firm administrator by refusing their demand for pay hike.

She retired from politics in 1971 and remained in seclusion till her death in 1974.She was a very active member.She became the first woman to be elected Chief Minister of a state

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