Free to Think talks with Peter Biar Ajak, scholar, civil society leader, and democracy advocate from South Sudan.

As a child, Peter was one of the “Lost Boys” of Sudan, who were displaced by the civil war and endured treacherous journeys to refugee camps.  Ultimately, Peter was resettled in the United States, earning degrees in international development and international studies from Harvard and Trinity College, Cambridge.

Forgoing career opportunities in North America and Europe, he returned to South Sudan—the youngest sovereign state in the world where roughly half the population of 12 million is under the age of 18—to assist in peacebuilding. His calls for “generational exit”—transitioning political power through free elections--quickly attracted a following among young people, and threats from senior officials. He was arrested, and jailed for 18 months in the notorious Blue House prison. After international campaigns on his behalf, he was released in January 2020.

Free to Think talks with Marcia Ross and Jeff Kaufman, the team behind NASRIN, a beautiful and inspiring new film about Nasrin Sotoudeh, Iranian human rights attorney. 

The film shows Sotoudeh's courage and compassion, as she represents those who have been forsaken by a brutal regime:  political prisoners, religious minorities, women, and children.  Arrested in 2018, while the film was being made, she was sentenced to 38 years and 148 lashes for the “crime” of defending women protesting the mandatory headscarf.

Sotoudeh has been called "Iran's Nelson Mandela." The filmmakers show her as she is: a lawyer, activist, feminist, wife, mother, friend, and a central figure in an extraordinary generation of Iranian women who simply refuse to accept anything less than full and equal rights.