Discover inspiring journeys from people who found their way to freedom
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I was sixteen when the guards came for me at school. My crime was asking my teacher a question about the new Islamic curriculum. Two years in Tehran's Evin Prison taught me that the human spirit can endure more than anyone imagines.
I crossed the border at seventeen thinking I'd return home in a few days. Instead, I spent a decade hiding in China under false identities before finally reaching South Korea — and then went back to rescue my family.
In 1960, I was a 23-year-old government clerk in Havana who refused to put a sign on my desk that read "I'm with Fidel." That simple act of conscience cost me twenty-two years in Castro's prisons.
Growing up in North Korea, I didn't even know the word "freedom" existed. Escaping meant crossing frozen rivers, surviving human traffickers, and walking across the Gobi Desert — but the hardest part was learning to think for myself.