Khin Kyi

Who is Khin Kyi?

Maha Thiri Thudhamma Khin Kyi was a Burmese politician and diplomat, best known for her marriage to the country's leader, Aung San, with whom she had a daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi.

She grew up in Myaungmya, an Irrawaddy delta town, the eighth of 10 brothers and sisters. Khin Kyi attended the American Baptist Mission-run Kemmendine Girls School in Rangoon, and continued her tertiary education at the Teachers' Training College in Moulmein. She then went on to become a teacher at the National School in her hometown, before deciding to give it up altogether to join the nursing profession against her mother's wishes, following the footsteps of her two elder sisters, who were at the time, training to become nurses. Khin Kyi moved to Rangoon and joined the staff of the Rangoon General Hospital as a nursing probationer.

Khin Kyi first met Aung San, who was recovering from injuries sustained during the Burma Campaign, at the Rangoon General Hospital, where she served as a senior nurse. The couple wed in September of that year.

She served as a member of parliament in the country's first post-independent government from 1947 to 1948, representing Rangoon's Lanmadaw Township, the constituency that her husband had won. In 1953, she was appointed as Burma's first Minister of Social Welfare.