All language subtitles for The Story Of Us - S01E01 - The March Of Freedom

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.

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