Mu Sochua

Mu Sochua (; born 15 May 1954) is a Cambodian politician and rights activist. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Battambang from 2013 to 2017, a seat which she previously held from 1998 to 2003. She was a member and Vice President of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) until its dissolve, and previously a member of the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) prior to its merger with the Human Rights Party. As a member of FUNCINPEC, she also served as Minister of Women and Veterans' Affairs in Hun Sen's coalition government from 1998 to 2004. She is currently one of 118 senior opposition figures serving a five-year ban from politics following a court ruling on 16 November 2017. Early life Sochua was born in Phnom Penh to a Sino Khmer father (Chinese Name：莫子凯) and a Sino Khmer mother (Chinese Name：沈珊) and received her early education at the French Lycee. In 1972, Sochua's parents sent her to Paris for further studies. A year later, she relocated to San Francisco to join her brother there. When the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia in 1975, her parents vanished. Sochua would remain in exile for the next 18 years. While Sochua was in the US, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the San Francisco State University in 1979, and a Master of Social Work from the University of California, Berkeley in 1981 before returning to Cambodia to help rebuild a society shattered by war. Between 1975 and 1981, she was also the President of the Cambodian community in San Francisco. She joined politics in 1995 as a women's rights activist, citing then U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton as her inspiration. Return from exile Sochua returned to Cambodia in 1989 after 18 years in exile, and has worked as an advocate for human rights, working to stop human trafficking, domestic violence and worker exploitation. Sochua formed the first organization for women, called Khemara. and joined the Funcinpec political party, winning a national assembly seat representing Battambang in 1998. Soon afterwards, she was asked to take over the Ministry of Women's and Veterans' Affairs, one of only two women in the cabinet. In July 2004 she stepped down from her role as a Minister, citing corruption as a major obstacle to her work. Almost immediately, she transferred her allegiance to the Sam Rainsy party, where she is deputy head of the steering committee.