Aung San Suu Kyi
High-profile opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has been a key figure in Burma for many years -- a symbol of hope for her people, a thorn in the side of the military junta that has controlled the country, also known as Myanmar, for more than half a century. As the country heads to the polls for the historic general election on Sunday, November 8, 2015, Suu Kyi hopes to lead her country.
Suu Kyi and the NLD won the last election they contested in 1990, but the military refused to honor the results and kept Suu Kyi under house arrest over most of the following two decades. Though barred from becoming president if she wins the election, because her late husband and sons are not citizens, she has said she will run the government anyway if her party wins by being "above the president."
In this photo, Suu Kyi attends an award ceremony to receive her 1990 Sakharov Prize at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, October 22, 2013. When awarded the prize in 1990, she was not allowed to leave her country to attend the ceremony.
By CBSNews.com Senior Photo Editor Radhika Chalasani
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Supporters react as pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi gives a speech at her campaign rally for the upcoming general elections in Yangon, November 1, 2015.
Suu Kyi is the chairperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD). The NLD won 59% of the votes in the 1990 general election. Anticipating a defeat, the military junta placed Suu Kyi under house arrest before the election. Detained for 15 of the next 21 years, she was one of the world's most prominent political prisoners. She was finally released on November 13, 2010.
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Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi waves to supporters after she gave a speech on voter education at the Hsiseng township in Shan state in Burma, September 5, 2015.
Suu Kyi comes from a political family with her father having been the de facto prime minister of Burma, who was assassinated in 1947, and her mother serving as ambassador to India in 1947.
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Burmese nationals living in Thailand hold portraits of pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and shout slogans during a protest outside the country's embassy in Bangkok on May 31, 2009.
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Aung San Suu Kyi walks with her son Kim Aris as he leaves Rangoon, also known as Yangon, December 7, 2010.
Aris, the younger of two sons of Suu Kyi and her late husband British academic Michael Aris, visited his mother for the first time in ten years after she was released from house arrest the previous month.
After studying in England, marrying Aris and having two children abroad, Suu Kyi returned to Burma in 1988 when her mother was dying. She quickly fell into politics in the face of the junta's widespread crackdown on the pro-democracy movement.
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Aung San Suu Kyi smiles at supporters as she celebrates Thingyan, the new year water festival, in front of her home in Rangoon while under house arrest, April 16, 2012.
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Aung San Suu Kyi attends a news conference after addressing the 101st session of the International Labour Conference of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva, June 14, 2012.
Suu Kyi was first released from detention in 1994. In 2000, she was once again placed under house arrest and released in 2002. Then again the military junta detained her a third time in 2003, before finally releasing her in 2010.
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Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi looks on before delivering her Nobel acceptance speech during a ceremony at Oslo's City Hall, June 16, 2012.
Suu Kyi finally accepted her 1991 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo after spending a total of 15 years under house arrest.
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Aung San Suu Kyi (C) visits the Louvre Museum in Paris, June 29, 2012.
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Aung San Suu Kyi attends a parliamentary meeting at the Lower House of Parliament in Naypyitaw, July 9, 2012.
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Aung San Suu Kyi visits a simulation of a forward operating base at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Camberley, Surrey in England, October 25, 2013.
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Aung San Suu Kyi is greeted by supporters as she arrives in Kawhmu township before the country's by-elections March 31, 2012.
Suu Kyi was vying for one of 45 parliamentary seats to be filled.
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Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron and Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi walk in the rose garden at Chequers, the Prime Minister's official country residence in Buckinghamshire, southern England June 22, 2012.
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Aung San Suu Kyi gestures during a meeting with members of the the Burmese community at the Royal Festival Hall in central London June 22, 2012.
Aung San Suu Kyi has returned to Europe for the first time since 1988, when she left her family life in Britain and found herself thrust into Burma's fight against dictatorship, mostly from the confines of her Rangon home.
For more on Suu Kyi: 60 Minutes - "The New Burma"