On the 13th anniversary of her death, we remember not only the woman who wrote that “light is necessary for life,” but the one who created it—again and again—even when surrounded by darkness. Her story reminds us that exile may take away one’s homeland, but it cannot take away one’s voice. That the act of creation, in itself, can be a revolutionary gesture. That silence, though imposed, can always be broken. Sima Koban’s light still burns.
