48 articles
Rigoberta Menchú
Rigoberta Menchú Tum is a K'iche' Maya human rights activist from Guatemala. She won the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize for her work on indigenous rights and social justice.
Rouhollah Zamzameh
Rouhollah Zamzameh, known as Rouhollah Zam (روحالله زم), Iranian dissident journalist and founder of the Telegram channel Amadnews; exiled in France, abducted from Iraq in 2019, executed by Iran on 12 December 2020.
Russell Means
Russell Means (Oglala Lakota, 1939–2012), AIM leader who led the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation, later an actor in The Last of the Mohicans and author of Where White Men Fear to Tread.
Sabina Wurmbrand
Sabina Wurmbrand, born Sabina Oster, was a Romanian-born evangelist imprisoned under communism who co-founded The Voice of the Martyrs with her husband Richard and wrote The Pastor's Wife.
Saima Wazed
Saima Wazed (সায়মা ওয়াজেদ), Bangladeshi school psychologist and autism advocate, daughter of Sheikh Hasina; WHO South-East Asia Regional Director February 2024 to September 2026, ending in fraud allegations, leave, and resignation.
Salwan Momika
Salwan Momika, Iraqi refugee and anti-Islam activist known for 2023 Quran burnings in Stockholm with Salwan Najem; deported in 2024, charged with hate speech, shot dead in Södertälje in January 2025.
Sarah Ransome
Sarah Ransome, South African-born Epstein and Maxwell survivor, sued in 2017 (settled 2018), testified at Maxwell's 2022 sentencing, and wrote the 2021 memoir Silenced No More; her 2016 sex-tape emails are disputed.
Shehla Rashid
Shehla Rashid Shora, Indian academic and former JNU students' union vice president (2015), led 2016 sedition-case protests, joined Shah Faesal's J&K People's Movement, faced a 2019 sedition case later withdrawn, and now teaches sociology in Budgam.
Sindhutai Sapkal
Sindhutai Sapkal (सिंधुताई सपकाळ), the 'Mother of Orphans', Indian social worker from Maharashtra who raised over a thousand orphans, founded multiple ashrams, and received the Padma Shri in 2021; died in Pune on 4 January 2022.
Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman
Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, Australian-American activist, founded SumOfUs (now Ekō) in 2011, led New Media Ventures 2020-2022, co-founded Golden Gate Institute for AI, and was Aaron Swartz's fiancée.
Thích Quảng Đức
Thích Quảng Đức (釋廣德), Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk (1897–1963) who self-immolated in Saigon on 11 June 1963 protesting Ngô Đình Diệm's persecution of Buddhists; Malcolm Browne's photo won World Press Photo of the Year.
Timothy Shriver
Timothy Shriver is an American educator and Chairman of Special Olympics International, founded by his mother Eunice Kennedy Shriver. He co-founded CASEL, founded UNITE.US, co-created the Dignity Index, and produced films including Amistad and Peanut Butter Falcon.
Toby Young
Toby Young (born 1963), Lord Young of Acton, is a British journalist and campaigner, son of Michael Young; founder of the Free Speech Union, co-founder of the West London Free School and the Modern Review.
Tyler Shultz
Tyler Shultz, Stanford-trained biologist and grandson of George Shultz, was the Theranos research engineer and whistleblower who exposed the $9 billion blood-testing fraud, then co-founded Flux Biosciences and Healthyr.
VeryDarkMan
VeryDarkMan (VDM), Martins Vincent Otse, born 1994, is a Nigerian social media commentator and activist known as "online police", famous for call-out videos, defamation suits (Falana, Mercy Chinwo), a fabricated NGO theft claim, and deepfake impersonation scams.
Victoria Roshchyna
Viktoriia Roshchyna (Вікторія Рощина), Ukrainian freelance journalist for Ukrainska Pravda and Hromadske who reported from Russian-occupied Ukraine, was detained in August 2023 and died 19 September 2024 in Russian custody in Kizel, Perm Krai; her returned body showed torture signs and missing organs.
Yeonmi Park (박연미)
Yeonmi Park (박연미), born 1993 in Hyesan, is a North Korean defector, human rights activist, and author of In Order to Live (2015) and While Time Remains (2023), known for her 2014 One Young World speech and for documented inconsistencies in her escape accounts.
Ziauddin Yousafzai
Ziauddin Yousafzai (born 1969) is a Pakistani educator and co-founder, with daughter Malala Yousafzai, of Malala Fund (2013); he kept his Swat Valley school open under the Taliban and wrote the memoir Let Her Fly.