Every year, around midnight on Oct. 6, marks the anniversary of the arrest of Phạm Đoan Trang by the Vietnamese authorities in 2020. This year marks six years since I last spoke to her and almost 12 years since we last met. Six years have gone by, and it feels like just a blink.
Many people have said to me that she has been in prison for six years, and without advocacy, three more years will pass quickly. I react strongly to those comments because, to me, she should be released unconditionally now. Any early release, even by just a day, would be a positive outcome. However, I am not writing this op-ed to explain why Phạm Đoan Trang should be released. Many international organizations have already made that clear. A writer and journalist should not be imprisoned for what she writes.
I also do not write this article to promote her as a hero, a leading journalist, or an inspiration for the youth in Việt Nam. Đoan Trang does not like titles or praise, and she would dislike my writing if it were just to commend her.
So, what are you doing today, Vi? I am writing from a different perspective and not just about Đoan Trang. I dedicate this piece to her mother and the families of three other imprisoned journalists in Việt Nam. I want to highlight how these women are the real heroes in our daily lives.
The Real Heroes
Why are they heroes, you may ask? They are heroes because they stand up and continue to oppose the injustice of these prison sentences in an authoritarian regime. The surveillance, harassment, and worries for those in prison can weigh heavily on them. Yet, they keep fighting. And they are all women. The heroes I encounter when advocating for these releases are the mother of Phạm Đoan Trang, the sister of Lê Hữu Minh Tuấn, and the wives of Phạm Chí Dũng and Nguyễn Tường Thụy.
Phạm Chí Dũng, Nguyễn Tường Thụy, and Lê Hữu Minh Tuấn are members of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam who reported on corruption, governance, and human rights. On January 5, 2021, they were convicted under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code for producing and disseminating material deemed to oppose the state. The European Parliament condemned their imprisonment and called for their immediate, unconditional release, viewing their cases as violations of freedom of expression.
These women I mention above have the tremendous power to care for their families and support their imprisoned loved ones while standing up to the authorities that wronged them. If these actions are not the real acts of heroes, then what are?
The heroes in my story today are women like those we grew up with. They are normal people, living their daily lives, yet when disaster strikes, they change tremendously to become superheroes. They wipe their tears, pick themselves up, and continue to hold their families together when the ones they love are behind bars.
The sentences they face together with their loved ones last for years, even decades. Đoan Trang was sentenced to nine years, Lê Hữu Minh Tuấn and Nguyễn Tường Thụy got 11 years each, and Phạm Chí Dũng was sentenced to 15.
The Strength of Their Families
Let’s start with Đoan Trang’s mother. I remember the time when I went with Đoan Trang’s mother to Geneva, Switzerland, to receive Trang’s Martin Ennals Award in 2022. Her mother, whom I call Auntie Căn, was an 82-year-old woman at the time, but she was so sharp. She insisted that she would be the person to acceptthe human rights award on her daughter’s behalf.
So we traveled with her, and when she saw Đoan Trang’s posters in the park and in the subway in Geneva, naming her as one of the laureates, she was so happy. And despite the emotional impact, she jokingly told me, “You know, if Đoan Trang had her picture publicly shown in Việt Nam, it would be on an arrest warrant, not on a platform of honor like this.”
That’s just to show you how mentally strong Đoan Trang’s mother is. Auntie Căn understands world politics very well. She knew the slim possibility of getting her daughter released early, and she understood thoroughly that it’s not up to any single one of us and that it is a joint effort. It must be a joint effort by many people and organizations who respect her daughter and who will not forget the work she has done.
Because Đoan Trang is an inspiration for Vietnamese youth, her family, especially her mother, understands that image very well. So they never demand that the advocacy team do anything only on Đoan Trang’s behalf. They do not demand that we prioritize her because they are very much like Đoan Trang; they are very humble people trying to practice humiliation.
The next woman in this group is the sister of Lê Hữu Minh Tuấn. I will call him Tuấn because he is a friend of mine. I knew him. I had conversations with him. I listened to his dreams about a day when Việt Nam will have free press, the day when we journalists will be able to write freely, investigate, and expose different problems in society. The day we can do the real work that journalists should do. So I knew Tuấn and I knew Trang because of their dreams and their work. When Tuấn was arrested and imprisoned, and when his health really deteriorated, I got to know his sister.
Tuấn’s sister also is similar to Đoan Trang’s mother. These two women don’t mind traveling anywhere and meeting anyone that can advocate for the release of their loved ones. In different meetings, Tuấn’s sister tried to explain the graveness of Tuấn’s medical situation in prison. She hopes to get her brother released so that he can come to the U.S. to live with her and get proper medical treatment. She sacrifices her time and does everything possible to gain his release.
And The Wives’ Strength
I did not know the wives of Phạm Chí Dũng and Nguyễn Tường Thụy personally before the arrests, the trials, or the sentences. I got to know them after Thụy and Dũng had been in prison for a few years. But in my interaction with Phạm Chí Dũng’s wife, whom I call sister Loan, she amazed me because she was such a remarkable partner to Dũng.
At first, I thought I would get to know a woman who would be helpless and weak. Nevertheless, Loan holds a professional job and is able to raise her children without her husband. She never blames Dũng, but she understands that he is sentenced to 15 years and still supports his work, his beliefs, and his perspective toward a future democratic Việt Nam that we all believe in.
She was working; she was running tasks and errands, and she was also trying to make time every month to come visit her husband. I never heard any complaint about his work and the situation he found himself in. She was a total supporter, and her strength also empowers him. She really strikes me as an extraordinary person.
I have never seen the picture of Phạm Chí Dũng that you saw in the feature above, and I cannot imagine him smiling so broadly and showing such happiness. That was the picture that Loan, his wife, chose, and I believe she always wants to remember him as he is in that image.
Auntie Lân, the wife of Nguyễn Tường Thụy, is also another woman who would sacrifice everything for her family and especially for her husband. I have never seen any posts on social media where she blamed her husband for his situation. She only cared for him, trying to bring him the home-cooked meals that she could to ease the pain that he suffered while in prison. Her happiness in doing that has now ended, because Việt Nam has a new decree regarding sending food to inmates, including political prisoners.
The new decree will stop the families from being able to send home-cooked meals to their loved ones in prison. Now the families can only send money to inmates to buy food at the prison.
I would paraphrase the thought of another former political prisoner, blogger Điếu Cày. For Điếu Cày, the requirement that prevents political prisoners from receiving food from home and only allows them to receive money to buy meals is both cruel and inhumane.
It means they cannot receive meals that their families can prepare for them according to their tastes and preferences. This moment is the only time and the only way families can show how much they care for and love their imprisoned loved ones. And now, that source of support has been cut off.
More than that, the food that they have to purchase from the prison centers is costly. So the families have to try to earn more money to feed their imprisoned family members.
A Unified Call for Justice
These four journalists want to promote Việt Nam’s human rights, especially free press and freedom of expression. This is why their families agree to jointly call for the release of Phạm Đoan Trang, Lê Hữu Minh Tuấn, Nguyễn Tường Thụy, and Phạm Chí Dũng now. These four journalists represent independent journalism in Việt Nam, and they were all convicted of the same crime: being journalists and accounting for the truth.
They are simply writers and journalists who do not advocate for revolution or regime change; they just want to write truthfully and without censorship.
These four journalists reported the stories of the common people, and Việt Nam put them in prison for it. Each is serving a long sentence in harsh conditions, and each has already faced serious health problems behind bars. Every month they stay in prison, putting their health at greater risk. They do not need a reduced sentence; they need unconditional release now. Hà Nội pays attention when foreign governments speak up. If you live in a democracy, contact your representatives today. Ask them to raise these four cases publicly and press Việt Nam to free them.
Journalism is not a crime. These political prisoners should be together with their families who are still waiting—and fighting—for them to come home.
