Thinzar Shunlei Yi

Thinzar Shunlei Yi (Also transliterated Thinzar Shun Lei Yi on 14 November 1991 in Sagaing, Myanmar, to a Kachin Christianefn|The Times refers to Thinzar Shunlei Yi's mother as Buddhist and a Burmese Buddhist father who was an army captain.) Being the daughter of a military family, she spent the first sixteen years of her life on military compounds, rarely leaving. According to Thinzar Shunlei Yi, her family felt "superior to the other people" outside of the compounds She was taught to "despise" Aung San Suu Kyi. As a teenager, she was sexually assaulted by a tutor. She experienced clinical depression, and attributed the incident to karma for her actions in a past life at the time. Her family moved every two years, living in Rakhine State and Mon State, among others, and finally settled in Yangon around 2007 training to become a high school teacher. There, during one of her presentations on voter education, she was forced off stage by a teacher in an incident that would inspire her later political activism. She graduated in 2013 with a B.Ed,

Political activism

Before 2021

In Yangon, Thinzar Shunlei Yi underwent an ideological change. when she helped organize International Day of Peace and attended a youth forum in Cambodia. She eventually became the first female national coordinator for the National Youth Congress, and the president of th e Yangon Youth Network, serving two terms. In 2014, she co-organized the ASEAN Youth Forum, and an International Youth Day celebration, which focused on mental health awareness. She stopped organizing youth forums in 2016, and began working with the NGO coalition Action Committee for Democracy Development, becoming an advocacy coordinator. Sensitive topics such as the Rohingya genocide were often discussed. After a two year long trial, they were convicted in July 2020. who is not suited to lead a younger generation. As of April 2023, her plans to establish a new party are still on hold. She attended and organized several protests during this period, Frequent doxing by pro-junta accounts posed a significant security risk, so she often switched hiding places in the Yangon region. After a month of training, she decided that she did not want to kill, and left the group. In June 2021, she told news media that she was near a border, but refused to specify which one. She invited participants in the campaign to "stage torture photos in solidarity with women in interrogation centers". Post coup d'état, she was awarded a Magnitsky Human Rights Award for Outstanding Young Activist for her advocacy for internally displaced persons in Kachin State, her organization of peace marches on the International Day of Peace, and her establishment of the #Sisters2Sisters campaign.