The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Democracy in Burma will today host the formal launch of Zoya Phan’s autobiography, Little Daughter. Zoya Phan is International Coordinator at Burma Campaign UK.
Senior politicians and celebrities are expected to attend the launch, including:
· Gillian Merron, Government Minister for Human Rights
· Rt Hon William Hague MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary
· Alistair Carmichael MP, Liberal Democrats & Secretary of All Party Parliamentary Group for Democracy in Burma
· Mike Jones, editor at Simon and Schuster
Stephen Crabb MP, Vice Secretary of APPG Burma, will host the event.
Other confirmed guests include, Jo Brand, Maureen Lipman, Rt.Hon Oliver Letwin MP.
Little Daughter – A memoir of survival in Burma and the West, is published by Simon and Schuster 5th May 2009, Priced £15.99 hardback.
Zoya Phan was born in the remote jungles of Burma, to the Karen ethnic group. For decades the Karen have been under attack from Burma’s military junta; Zoya’s mother was a guerrilla soldier, her father a freedom activist. Zoya lived in a bamboo hut on stilts by the Moei River; she hunted for edible fungi with her much-loved adopted brother, Say Say. Many Karen are Christian or Buddhist, but Zoya’s parents were animist, venerating the spirits of forest, river and moon. Her early years were blissfully removed from the war.
At the age of fourteen, however, Zoya’s childhood was shattered as the Burmese army attacked. With their house in flames, Zoya and her family fled. So began two terrible years of running from guns, as Zoya joined thousands of refugees hiding in the jungle. Her family scattered, Zoya sought sanctuary across the border in a Thai refugee camp. Conditions in the camp were difficult, and Zoya now also had to care for her ailing mother.
Zoya, a gifted pupil, was eventually able to escape, first to Bangkok and then, with her enemies still pursuing her, in 2004 she fled to the UK and claimed asylum.
The following year, at a ‘free Burma’ march, she was plucked from the crowd to appear on the BBC, the first of countless interviews with the world’s media. She became the face of a nation enslaved, rubbing shoulders with presidents and film stars.
By turns uplifting, tragic and entirely gripping, this is the extraordinary true story of the girl from the jungle who became an icon of a suffering land.
Zoya Phan is a 28-year-old ethnic Karen refugee from Burma. As a teenager she was forced to flee her country after her village was attacked by the Burmese army. She now lives in London and works for the human rights organization Burma Campaign UK.
For more information please contact Zoya Phan on 020 7324 4710