(CNN) -- She is small but only in physical stature. Aung San Suu Kyi is the very embodiment of Myanmar's long struggle for democracy.
The 65-year-old human rights activist has defied Myanmar's authoritarian military junta with her quiet demeanor and grace. For that she has endured house arrest for much of the past two decades and, perhaps, has become the world's most recognizable political prisoner.
She has lived quietly by herself at her disintegrating Inya Lake villa in Yangon (the former capital, also known as Rangoon), accompanied solely by two maids.
Before her release Saturday, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate had little outside human contact except for visits from her doctor.
Sometimes, though, she was able to speak over the wall of her compound to her supporters, never once tiring of her crusade to break down the tyranny of dictatorship in her beloved homeland of Burma, the alternate name for Myanmar.
CNN
