Source: Radio New Zealand (world)
The Vietnamese-American civil rights activist says survivors sharing their stories keeps her “fire for the fight alive” and became her “fuel to break into space”.
As Amanda Nguyễn – the first Southeast Asian woman to travel in space – descended back to Earth last year, the ringing of a countdown buzzer reminded her of the heart monitor she was hooked up to after being raped as a 22-year-old Harvard University student.
Sitting aboard Blue Origin’s NS-31, she was at the pinnacle of her career and didn’t necessarily want to be reminded of the pain, but the flashback gave her the reassurance to pull out her hospital band with ‘never give up’ written.
“I remember just being grateful, that the courage that I needed in that moment, I had learned first when I was in a hospital room, in the emergency room, it was the same courage. And it was a very full circle moment,” Nguyễn tells Culture 101.
“I was able to show my survivor self the world she changed,” Nguyễn says of the descent home. “I learned a lesson, which is that we don’t have to choose between different parts of our lives.
We are multitudes in that we can have joy and also recognise the struggle of the journey that brought us there.” The 34-year-old became a civil rights activist after discovering her rape kit would be destroyed after six months if she did not report the crime within that time or an extension request was not filed, despite a 15-year statute of limitations for rape in Massachusetts.
“All I saw was red in the beginning because I was so upset,” she says.
Amanda Nguyễn speaks onstage during a discussion for the TIME Women Of The Year Leadership Forum on 25 February, 2025 in West Hollywood, California.Amy Sussman / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP Amanda Nguyễn speaks onstage during a discussion for the TIME Women Of The Year Leadership Forum on 25 February, 2025 in West Hollywood, California.
Amy Sussman / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP Feeling she was at a crossroad, she worried fighting for her rights and going to court might hinder her astronaut dreams. But a remark from a hero of hers – retired NASA astronaut and former NFL player Leland Melvin, a survivor of abuse himself – encouraged her.
“When you’re ready, I’ll be there to welcome you back,” Nguyễn says he told her. So she shelved her astronaut ambitions, founded the nonprofit Rise, and drafted the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act, which passed unanimously by Congress in 2016.
“I also would like to say that that rage has now turned into hope. But it is a return on investment that I witnessed, which is that when I spoke up, people responded.
“It’s because we had a diversity of professional, social backgrounds on our team that we ended up drafting a bill that passed unanimously.” But her journey came at a cost, she says, and “was paid for in blood, sweat and tears”.
“I think that it is difficult to be known for being assaulted – the worst day of your life. “It is both a privilege and a burden. And I’ll say it’s a privilege because I’ve had so many survivors come up to me and share with me their own traumas and their stories.
Every time a survivor does that, it’s like they’re handing over a burning coal, it keeps my fire for the fight alive. It’s also a weight that I carry. “Over time, I have seen that fire transform the United Nations, literally become my fuel to break into space.
It’s taken me to extraordinary places.
And I find solace in the activists who have come before me.” Supplied / Headline Publishing Group Supplied / Headline Publishing Group Detailing her journey in her memoir, Saving Five: A Memoir of Hope, Nguyễn employs “magical realism” to talk to younger versions of herself as way to process grief and trauma but also recognise her own courage and resilience.
“How much could we learn from ourselves if we were to have a conversation with our teenage selves, with our five-year-old self? That’s what I want readers to ask so that they can take their own journeys of healing.
“Sometimes we may not know it yet, but we’re braver than we know. And only upon looking back do we realise, ‘wow, we were that girl. We were that person’.” Nguyễn was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 and was named Time Magazine’s Woman of the Year in 2022.
NS-31 astronauts celebrate at the crew capsule after a successful flight to space. Left to right: Kerianne Flynn, Katy Perry, Lauren Sánchez, Aisha Bowe, Gayle King, Amanda Nguyễn.Supplied / Blue Origin NS-31 astronauts celebrate at the crew capsule after a successful flight to space.
Left to right: Kerianne Flynn, Katy Perry, Lauren Sánchez, Aisha Bowe, Gayle King, Amanda Nguyễn. Supplied / Blue Origin She also trained for four years before stepping onto the New Shepard for liftoff. The mission itself was no walk in the park though.
She was “super stressed”, having to complete three separate experiments (about plant pathology, menstruation, and breast cancer), give a speech Vietnam asked her to do in space and report back on status of her seatmates while being pulled by six times the gravity of Earth as they descended – one of the most dangerous parts of space missions.
Upon landing, she put her hands up and yelled, releasing all the built-up emotions – “all of the dreams, the hopes, the pain, the struggle, the journey to get there through those 11 years”.
“I hope for every survivor that they get that victory moment.” A survivor texted her to ask if she realised what the date was – exactly 11 years to the day that her rape kit was supposed to be destroyed.
“Some call it divine timing. I call that justice.” Sign up for Life, a weekly lifestyle and entertainment newsletter curated by RNZ’s Life editors and delivered to your inbox every Saturday. • Need to Talk? Free call or text 1737 any time to speak to a trained counsellor, for any reason. • Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text HELP to 4357. • Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 / 0508 TAUTOKO.
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