This article is more than 2 years old.

December 12, 2016 This article is more than 2 years old.

Nurul Izzah Anwar’s political career began at age 18, when her father, the then deputy prime minister of Malaysia, was sacked and imprisoned over trumped-up sodomy charges.

Malaysia has undergone countless threats to its 60 year old democracy. This includes, most recently, the world’s largest financial scandal: Investigators are involved in a multi-billion dollar money laundering probe of the country’s 1MDB state development fund. The US Department of Justice has filed lawsuits in the case, implicating Malaysia’s prime minister Najib Razak.

Anwar’s father, a vocal opposition leader, has been in and out of jail for the last 18 years, and she herself was imprisoned briefly this year.

Watch the video above to hear why she’s willing to risk her own freedom for the sake of her country’s democracy.