Original subtitles

Freedom.

You say America, and it's probably the next word that comes to mind.

It's our fundamental right to live our lives however we want.

But freedom isn't something we've always had.

When I was 18 I joined the air force and I did well enough on my test to qualify

as an electronic counter measures operator.

But I was told I couldn't take that job.

Apparently, no black man could fly with the Strategic Air Command.

Abraham Lincoln knew that a country could only truly stand for freedom if

it applied to all of its people.

Around the world there's a growing tide of freedom.

The belief that every person has the right to self determination

is growing stronger and stronger.

I wonder, if one day we will all be free.

What drives people to fight for freedom?

Five nights before elections they told everybody Putin

will be the next president.

I was just really angry.

Can we find liberty even when bound in chains?

My mind and emotions were beyond the confines of that cell.

And when will everyone be free to be who they really are?

I wanna wear a Burkah so nobody sees me as a boy.

That's when I felt what freedom really meant.

This is my journey.

To discover the ties that bind us.

And the common humanity inside us.

This is The Story of Us.

Subtitles by explosiveskull

I'm going to meet a man who was born a slave.

Shin Dong Hyuk began his life in a North Korean labor camp.

It was the only world he knew until he was 23 years old.

I wonder what freedom means for someone who first encounters it as an adult?

Shin and his wife Leann are meeting me in New York City to tell me his story.

Nice to meet you.

- How do you do? - Good.

So, how long you two been married?

- Two year. - Two years?

- Yeah, this April. - Is that a long time yet?

- Yes. - Yeah.

Feels long at the same time it feels like it was just yesterday.

Ok, got, got you out of a hole there.

You been free now for, what?

Eleven year.

Eleven years, okay, so you were born in a slave labor camp?

Yep, so.

How did it come about that you were gonna be born there?

My parents go in the camp, I was born in the camp.

- They were political prisoners? - Yes.

The United Nations estimates there are about 100,000

political prisoners in North Korea.

You can be thrown into a prison camp simply by speaking ill of the country's leader.

Just talk to me a little bit about daily life while you were in the camp.

You were there for a long time.

We woke around 4 AM.

and there would be some kind of signal either a bell, maybe a speaker

and we would know it was time to go and work.

So would do whatever task it would be.

It could be farming corn rice, it could be working in the coal mines.

None of us had dreams or hopes for the future.

It was just so natural, that's just the way it was.

Born there, lived there, die there.

If we do something wrong or don't work well, the guards would give us an option,

you can either starve or get beat.

Gee wiz!

So one of the rules that we learn is that we are never, ever supposed to eat anything,

that is not given to us.

This little girl was probably six or seven at the time but she must have came across

something to eat and she didn't want to eat it all at once and she must have wanted

to save it so she had to hid it in her pocket and one of the guards had said,

why didn't follow the rule, you know better than that?

And he repeatedly hit her on her head and eventually she passed out.

The next day she didn't come to class so the guard sent us to go get her

but when we got the house she was dead.

They beat this child to death?

What about your parents?

Really sad but they were just fellow prisoners to me,

I didn't have any sense of family.

The hardest thing in my whole life is probably the memory of my mum and my brother.

But I learned as a child that I'm supposed to report to the guards at any point

on my own parents, you know, report if they're doing anything wrong.

And the more I report on them, the better off it is for me.

So I thought they were escaping and I reported on them.

I really had no anticipation or thoughts of what would come from that.

There were many people gathered and my father and

I were forced to watch their execution.

But honestly I really had no emotion.

- When it happened? - When it happened.

In a way I thought it must have been a sin that maybe they...

deserved.

Later Shin recalls meeting a fellow prisoner named Park,

a man who traveled throughout North Korea and China.

He intoxicated Shin with descriptions of life lived freely and life with food.

He sparked a lot of curiosity with the things he said.

But the thing that was most fascinating was the way he was able to express

and explain the foods he ate, like pork,

the way he would describe it was so interesting and it just pulled me in.

Some might consider it kind of foolish or humorous

but for me it was something as simple as food.

It was that simple thought that kind of drove me initially.

To run?

In 2005, January 2nd we were tasked to work near the fence.

I had actually been the one to initially say, maybe this is the time we should try.

According to Shin, when they made their break, Park arrived at the fence first.

But he accidentally touched the electric wire.

Only Shin made it through alive.

I really had no idea what to do or where to go,

all I knew is that I needed to get away as far as possible.

Of course, of course.

Shin crossed the border into China and survived by working odd jobs.

He made his way to Shanghai and from there gained passage to Seoul in South Korea.

Shin had freed his body, but he began to realize his mind was still enslaved.

You're free.

How is that feeling?

The time I come to South Korea, in the night I don't sleep.

Nightmare?

Yeah.

And because of the nightmares and the mental distress I couldn't even eat.

I was diagnosed with severe PTSD.

And from that point is when I started having questions in my head about life.

How long were you in South Korea?

- About ten years. - Ten years.

It's a long time to get acclimated.

Which brings up you.

From when I first saw her I liked her right away and I thought she was pretty.

And within a few days I asked if she had a boyfriend and, he's very brave.

- Very brave. - Very brave, I must say.

Marrying Leann and choosing to start a family was for Shin a decisive break from the

chains that had bound him for so long.

It was so hard for me to comprehend and look at the world around me where parents

love their children and feed their children and clothe their children

and care for them.

But now that we are expecting our son, I see how my wife is preparing for it

and I see that there's a child growing inside of her

and I just see the world differently.

- Well Shin. - Bye.

- Thank you so very much. - Thank you very much, thank you.

Really appreciate your coming and doing this.

I hope to see you again maybe.

Alright that's a good idea.

And my darling, thank you.

Thank you, so nice meeting you.

Take care of that young'in.

- Thank you. - OK, bye-bye. - Bye.

Shin didn't suddenly feel free, he had to learn what freedom is.

Experiencing the joy and challenges of life

and all the complex choices you have to make.

He has made those choices.

He's got married.

He has a kid on the way.

And that, that's what gives freedom meaning.

Freedom is a state of mind.

And this man is living proof of that.

He found a way to be free, even though his body was utterly trapped.

For 43 years.

I'm headed to Louisiana, to meet Albert Woodfox.

He was imprisoned here in Angola State Penitentiary for most of his life.

Originally convicted of armed robbery at age 18,

he ended up on solitary confinement for longer than anyone else in American history.

A-ha.

- A-ha. - Mr. Woodfox.

- Mr. Freeman, welcome to my home. - Nice to meet you.

I would expect anyone who spends four decades in solitary to emerge

with a broken soul and deadened mind.

But Albert appears healthy and well adjusted.

I've come to find out how.

So, what got you in prison?

I was a predator in my own community.

You know a petty criminal, a person of the street.

I was undisciplined, unmotivated stuff.

But my crime going to prison was an armed robbery charge.

And did you go straight to Angola when you were convicted?

No I actually escaped the very day I was sentenced to 50 years.

Ok, alright, you escaped, you were out for a little while?

- Well I went to New York. - You went to New York?

It was a defining moment in my life because while in Harlem

I had an up close encounter with the Black Panther Party.

♪ Revolution has come ♪

I had always noticed a certain fear in African-Americans,

even those who defied the odds and achieved certain goals in life.

For the first time in my life where I seen black people

and I didn't see that fear, I didn't feel that fear.

Talking about revolution and organizing the black community to protect the people.

Some of the sisters.

And although they possessed outward beauty, it was the inner beauty that I was

seeing, it was the strength and determination and the sense of purpose.

I was profoundly shocked when I realized that hey,

I am worth something, I do matter.

I actually joined the Black Panther Party.

OK.

But I got arrested again and I was eventually extradited back to Louisiana

and after that they shipped me to Angola in 71.

But it was an incident a year after his arrival at Angola

that would change the course of Albert's life.

A prison guard was found murdered.

April 17th 1972 they found a correction officer named Brent Miller

murdered in one of the units.

Each unit has four dormitories and I was in the very last unit.

Even though Albert's unit was nowhere near the scene of the crime,

prison authorities accused him of the murder.

Did they ever find out who did it?

Well they could of, they had a bloody, identifiable bloody fingerprint on the door.

They had the fingerprint of every prisoner in the Angola at that time.

They could have found out who that fingerprint was from.

Albert believes he and two other inmates were framed because

of their affiliation with the Black Panthers.

They labeled me a militant.

During that time a militant meant you was a Panther.

I was placed in solitary confinement.

April 18th 1972 and I didn't get out of solitary confinement

until February 19th 2016.

Albert and the other two inmates each spent decades in solitary confinement.

They became known as the Angola 3.

Human rights groups around the world declared their punishment cruel and inhumane.

Why this room is a little bigger than the cell but it give you some idea

of the size of the cell we lived in in solitary confinement.

The cell is approximately you know, nine feet long and six feet wide.

- This is the length of it? - Yes. - Good Lord.

So you have a very narrow path that you can walk up and down and sit.

How much time you spend in this place?

- A 23 hours out of the day. - 23 hours every day. - Every day.

- Seven days a week. - Seven days a week, 365 days of the year.

It was a living nightmare, filled with one horror after another.

That's the only way I can describe prison.

The strip search, now that it one of the most humiliating experiences

you can go through.

And you have to stand before these people and strip completely naked.

And you have to you know, raise your genitals and you open your mouth

and you know this is what they used to do to our ancestors on the slave block.

And so we started resisting you know, we wouldn't do it.

You know they would tell you strip and you refuse and they'd beat you

and tear your clothes off you and stuff.

Slam you down on the desk.

I don't know how many times I got beat.

Albert's physical world was incredibly small and oppressive

but he refused to let his cage confine him.

That would seem to close the mind Albert.

Didn't close yours.

I never thought about being in the cell.

My mind and emotions and all that were beyond the confines of that cell.

I said that if me dying in solitary confinement become a better human being and

to make those around me better, it would be worth it.

I started to try to raise the level of consciousness of other prisoners

in the dormitory I lived in.

Educate, agitate, organize against prison corruption, prison brutality.

Albert had freed his mind even though his body remained confined.

We are deeply disappointed that Mr. Woodfox will not be released today.

Twice Albert has his conviction overturned.

Twice more the state imposed new charges.

Finally government officials offered to release Albert if he pleaded

"no contest" to lesser charges.

On his 69th birthday, after 43 years and ten months in solitary,

Albert Woodfox became the last of the Angola 3 to be released.

Albert's body finally followed his mind to freedom.

He's finally reunited with his family and he gets to enjoy

being a great grandfather.

He's also an advocate for prisoners rights.

You were amazed at people who were black but not afraid and

I think part of your freedom, while incarcerated, is freedom from fear.

Because if you had been afraid you wouldn't have done any of that.

No I don't think I could.

Every time you know, I had to take a stand and knowing that there would

be some retribution, you know but still overcoming fear,

finding the strength to say,

I'm still, I still got to do this.

I have to do this.

That spells C-O-U-R-A-G-E.

Thank you.

Albert Woodfox had four decades in solitary confinement

to think about freedom.

In prison he learned to cast off the chains that bound him physically

and found that inner freedom.

Nelson Mandela said, "To be free is not merely to cast off ones chains,

but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."

Something we must all strive for.

Life without the concept of freedom seems alien to most of us today.

For most of recorded history, freedom was the domain of only a select few.

Royalty, nobility and the wealthy.

But in 1776, 13 British colonies in North America dared to declare freedom

as a basic human right.

I'm headed to the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia

to meet with its librarian Patrick Spero.

He studies documents dating back to the time of the country's founding.

What you're looking at here is one of the first printings of

the Declaration of Independence.

The first section is the preamble.

And this is where they talk about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

And the idea is that individuals should be free to do these things

and government is constituted to protect those freedoms.

These freedoms.

And what the king has done is broken that contract,

broken that trust and so they have to be freed from

the king in order to be free to do what they want.

Now can you say taht this was the first time a group of people decided that they

wanted to be free to do whatever the heck they wanted to do?

Well I think it's the first time that it was ever written in a official way.

But this is not the only version of the Declaration of Independence that survives.

The other document that I wanna show you is this,

Thomas Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence

and you can see on the side there's these notes.

Yep.

Once Congress got their hands on this they started changing words,

changing meanings.

I think the most notable one is in that famous phrase, that people were endowed with

certain unalienable rights, Jefferson originally wrote

"inherent and inalienable rights".

Inherent rights, which Jefferson used several times,

means that all people are born with the...

Born with these rights.

OK, so if they rights are not inherent, then you're not necessarily born with them,

only a few people are born with them.

And they're applied only to white society.

- White male society? - Yes, yes.

It never occurred to me that the rights to freedom spelled out

in the Declaration of Independence were deliberately

phrased to exclude slaves and women.

Thomas Jefferson's original draft, preserved here in the

American Philosophical Society, describes the rights as inherent,

meaning they should apply to everybody from birth.

But the final signed version only describes certain unalienable rights.

In other words, only rights land owning white men already had, couldn't be taken away.

The Declaration of Independence, it says that all men are created equal,

that's not what it meant?

They aren't writing for the enslaved, they aren't writing for women.

The thing is about this document, is that slavery existed in this period,

but the word is never used and they are purposeful about not using it because

they know that it does not comport with the idea of liberty,

that there's that contradiction, that paradox.

Is it safe to say that Jefferson was probably one of our

most enigmatic presidents?

Yes.

Well you know, the thing is Jefferson was imperfect you know.

Jefferson had slaves, Jefferson's imperfections got at the American paradox.

Ok, so the Declaration of Independence

is not a document guaranteeing freedom?

Yes, I think that's fair.

But once you put that writing in stone, it empowered people, it inspired people.

It drove them to realize what those words meant.

Could mean.

Well it took a lot of fighting and effort, heroic actions, bravery,

people willing to risk their lives to realize the promise of the Declaration.

The Declaration of Independence was not designed to free everyone in America.

Its original purpose was to free powerful American landowners from any

obligations to the King of England.

But, once those white men had signed that document,

they unwittingly opened the road to freedom for the rest of us to walk along.

Freedom doesn't come without a fight.

What American revolutionaries fought for over two centuries ago,

other revolutionaries continue to battle for today.

I've come to Guatemala to meet freedom fighter and Nobel Peace Prize

winner Rigoberta Menchu.

A Guatemalan Indian rights activist who fled her country in 1981

after security forces killed her family.

She has dedicated her life to securing a better future

for the indigenous peoples of her country.

Hello, hello, hello.

Senor Freeman.

Rigoberta belongs to the K'iche one of over 20 indigenous groups of

Mayan descent which make up about half of Guatemala's population.

For centuries the Mayan were denied voting rights and land ownership

and were forced to labor on plantations.

Some of the worst oppression came during the 36 year Guatemalan Civil War.

When tens of thousands of Maya were kidnapped, tortured and murdered.

Rigoberta gave voice to the plight of her people with an oral testimony that would

become her book I, Rigoberta Menchu.

Your book seemed to make quite an impact,

why do you think that is?

I was the first Guatemalan that was able to talk about

what was happening here in Guatemala.

I think Guatemala was a laboratory for cruelty.

Here they practiced torture, they practiced forced disappearance and they

practiced brutal hatred against the Mayans.

Rigoberta's father began organizing rural workers and fighting for indigenous rights

but he drew the attention of the regime which was vent on rooting out guerrillas.

The war reached my home in 1979.

My brother was kidnapped.

He was 16 years old.

And then he was tortured and then he was shot to death.

On January 31st 1980, Rigoberta's father joined a group of activists occupying

the Spanish embassy in Guatemala City.

They were protesting massacres and kidnappings taking place in the countryside.

The authorities ordered a raid but then the embassy caught fire

and police blocked the exits.

He was in the embassy, on fire?

Si.

Three months after the death of my father my mother was kidnapped.

And she suffered the worst of the torture.

And then another one of my brothers had been shot to death.

Your father, your mother, two brothers, killed.

Si.

They never caught up with you?

The Sisters of the Sacred Family brought me to Guatemala City.

They were able to get me out, hide me with religious orders in Mexico.

- How long were you there? - For 14 years. - 14 years in Mexico?

So I made a promise to fight against impunity for the rest of my life.

And I became a spokesperson for Guatemala.

Rigoberta traveled around the world spreading the story of the Maya's quest for freedom.

She addressed the United Nations.

In 1992 she won the Nobel Peace Price.

Her tireless work brought international pressure on Guatemala's government and

helped lead the way to peace.

In Guatemala, just as in the civil rights movement in the US,

some people chose to fight for freedom with the sword, while others chose the pen.

It is those who chose the path of peace I believe,

who lay the foundation for real change.

If freedom is ever going to become a universal human right,

it needs people willing to champion it no matter what the danger.

I'm headed to New York to meet a woman who is fearless in her march for freedom.

Nadya Tolokonnikova is a founding member of Pussy Riot,

a Russian protest rock band.

In 2012 Pussy Riot staged a flash concert inside a Moscow cathedral.

Their aim was to draw attention to what they saw as suppression

of democratic freedoms by Russian President Vladimir Putin

with the collusion of the Russian church.

Nadya's musical protest cost her 22 months in prison.

She's free now, living in New York.

And she refuses to be cowed into silence.

Now the name Pussy Riot, very outgoing and daring and ear catching,

get peoples attention.

How many of you started this?

Me and my friend Kat.

But we have open membership 'cause the idea was to start a movement

and so everybody could join.

Your group, the reason you got arrested,

was you did this raunchy performance in a church.

Mm-hm.

Why did you do that, was it because you knew you would get arrested and

draw a lot of attention or?

I was just really angry because I woke up one morning and they told us,

everybody in my country that Vladimir Putin was next president.

So five months before the elections they just announced it.

And I was confused.

I didn't really like it.

You went to jail.

What was that like?

It made me more stubborn, I was stubborn before but they made me more, focused.

If you're able to find inspiration in everything, then you could find

inspiration in jail too.

But it doesn't change the fact that we don't have any medication,

the conditions are terrible.

I was approached by a lot of women in my camp and they told me, like look,

you're the, the one person who could a actually help us.

You have media and you have lawyers and you have a voice so just tell

what's going on in this prison.

Nadya now had another oppressor of freedom to target.

Russian prison authorities.

She staged multiple hunger strikes and drafted letters of protest.

So I was writing these papers to all these different prison officials about

what I want from them.

I want them improve the food, I wanted them to improve our conditions.

Well I mean make enough noise, it would seem to me that they would

want to shut you completely up.

Stick a needle in your neck and you die, you were never worried about that?

It could happen yeah, it could happen.

Even while she was locked in a Russian prison,

Nadya Tolokonnikova remained a freedom fighter,

battling for basic human rights for inmates.

So I wrote an open letter and then somehow sneaked through this open

letter and they passed it to the free world, and it's all over the world,

it's in the biggest Russian media and it's in the Guardian

and the Times and it's everywhere.

I did achieve something 'cause several guys who were in,

my prison officials they were fired from their jobs.

What do you hope to do ultimately?

I think I'm just trying to build this community all around the world.

You could, you can create some wave of inspiration of or energy...

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah of course.

Inspire some other people.

If you can inspire five people around you that's enough 'cause if that five people

inspire somebody else and then, then it just will grow.

I think fame is a process, it is not an idea it is just this process of exploring

you know yourself and a your existence in the world.

♪ Would you have freedom from wage slavery? ♪

♪ Then join in the grand Industrial band. ♪

♪ Would you from misery and hunger be free ♪

♪ Then come, do your share, like a man. ♪♪

Nadya fights for freedom wherever she sees people without it.

In Russia she fought for democratic rights, in prison she fought for human rights.

♪ There is power, there is power, ♪

♪ In a band of working man. ♪

♪ When they stand, hand in hand. ♪

♪ That's a power, that's a power... ♪♪

In America she's singing an early 20th century workers rights tune

reflecting one of her new fights, the freedom to join labor unions.

♪ One industrial union grand. ♪

Freedom may be an eternal principle, but in reality freedom will wither and die

unless people like Nadya fight for it, rejuvenate it, nourish it.

♪ Hand in hand. ♪

♪ That's a power that's a power. ♪

♪ That must true in every land. ♪

♪ One industrial union grand. ♪♪

Most freedom fighters struggle against outside oppressors.

Kings, governments, or prison guards.

But there's another form of freedom.

The freedom to be and to be seen as who we really are.

I'm meeting Victoria Khan,

a woman who has fought for freedom in every aspect of her life.

She grew up in Afghanistan during the tumult of the early 90s.

The Taliban were gaining a foothold but were being fought by

homegrown rebel groups led by Ahmad Shah Massoud.

You have quite a story to tell me.

Start way back and tell me.

I was born in Afghanistan and my parents were working

for Ahmad Shah Massoud.

My mum and dad adored me of course and I have a little sister.

The civil war breaks out somewhere when you were around six or seven yeas old.

So one night there's something you can feel there's loud

and screaming and gun shots.

And everyone's home had hidden areas.

And my mum and dad they put us, both of us in there.

I remember my mum saying, don't you come out until everything is quiet.

Then they kiss us, they said take care of your sister and that was it.

Can you tell me what happened when you came up?

The street was full of dead bodies, blood.

It's impossible to recognize whose who.

Not only they shot people, they chopped off heads, chopped off body parts.

- Did you find your parents? - No.

After your parents were killed, all the children were taken by Mullahs and these

imams and Mullahs would pick out I'll take him, her, him, her.

How did that go?

I did that for I would say maybe four or five months until I saw these

imam on top of my sister...

molesting her and she was five and a half years old.

So when he went to prayer room, ran into the house, grabbed my sister and I put

her on me because she couldn't even walk, she was bleeding and...

I carried her on my back maybe a few miles until we found a women

who was sitting outside her home.

She took us in and gave us some dry bread and water.

But then she told us she's gonna take us to some very safe place.

It was a Wahabi camp for children.

Where they start telling you how to become a suicide bomber,

but they're not gonna just up front coming up and say we're gonna train you

to become a suicide bomber.

You're wanting to be because they say you're gonna meet your mum and dad.

And we really, really wanted to see our parents.

Just as Victoria believed she was about to be shipped to Pakistan

for more jihadi training, the rebel leader Ahmad Shah Massoud

attacked the Wahabi camp.

Ahmad Shah Massoud and maybe 40, 50 fighters comes in the horses with their weapons.

Oh my god this person gonna save me.

Ahmad Shah Massoud kills every single one of these people who are torturing these children,

so he rescues every one of us, 5-600 children.

That's Ahmad Shah Massoud.

He was not just a leader of our country he was a spiritual leader.

- Savior. - Savior, that's the word I was looking for.

After Victoria and her sister were liberated,

a woman offered them safe passage to Tajikistan.

So you got this woman she's taking you now to Tajikistan.

Yes, we're crossing a border.

I'm crying, I said I don't want to be separated from my sister,

I wanna wear a Burkah so nobody sees me as a boy.

- Wait, wait, wait, you were not a girl. - I was in a boy body.

You were born a boy.

I looked skinny little version boy physically, and beautiful girl inside.

Many people today fight for the freedom to live as their minds

and spirits compel them to.

But Victoria Khan's struggle to free her true self was coupled with

a long battle to stay alive.

As a transgender woman, she grew up in Afghanistan being seen as a boy.

But while crossing the border in Tajikistan with her younger sister,

Victoria wanted to make sure they were not separated.

So she put on a Burkah.

The Burkah was that lightening stroke, that says yes.

When I put it on the first time that I felt what freedom really meant.

It felt so right, first time I felt like, like the wings I had in my back,

that I could fly.

Now I get the taste of that, now I cannot forget it

and I cannot give up never having it either.

Victoria spent the next few years making her way from Tajikistan to Europe

where her sister now lives.

Eventually Victoria made it to the U.S.

She had freed herself from the mortal dangers of her childhood,

but she still wasn't free.

Here you are in the United States where we're free.

You can do pretty much whatever you want.

Do you feel free?

I was yearning for that feminine feeling.

Remember when I put the Burkah on it made me feel free but I thought putting

this western skirt and the head bands on it will make also

again feels the same powerful feelings,

but I had a little bump on that road because closer to the mirror

I got there was a fuzzy mustache start growing.

That was, terrifying, terrifying to think that its actually would

become like my fathers with full face beard.

I was tired of acting as a man.

It was exhausting 24/7.

So first I decided to do my facial.

It took me almost a year and a half to do electrolysis and lasers and all that is the

most extremely painful thing.

Then why don't I just do the entire surgery all back to back.

I went to Colombia, had 18 surgeries back to back.

We have a saying about freedom, it's not just walls and bars.

Sometimes it's just the mind.

You are right.

Being free from anything and anyone is the best thing we can ever

experience as a human being.

I hope you do all the things you want to do, you've earned them.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Victoria has followed a long road to freedom.

She was born in a country at civil war.

Survived becoming an orphan.

Escaped becoming a suicide bomber.

But the hardest ordeal was the last.

Having the courage to free the person she truly is.

Abraham Lincoln said, "Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves."

But the war for universal freedom is far from won and the battle lines are

only moved forward slowly.

Around the world millions of people still live in slavery.

Women still struggle to be granted the same rights as men.

Others just want to be allowed to be the person they know they are inside.

It's been truly humbling to meet those people who fought so hard for their freedoms.

Their stories are a shocking reminder of how vigilant we must be

to protect human rights.

But they also give me a glimmer of hope that one day,

those rights will apply to all of us.

Subtitles by explosiveskull