Page 60 - NAKS MAC 2026 EBook

The Korea Review disputed the violent Japanese colonial rule over Korea, using a
series of petitions, essays, and political arguments to urge the United States
government and public for their support and the recognition for independent Korea.
To appeal to Americans with the Korean independence movement, Philip used a
Philadelphia-based journal along with an English language format. Referring to

President Woodrow Wilson’s ideals of national self-determination, Philip leveraged the
publication to align Korea’s anti-colonial struggle. The Korea Review contributed as a
crucial beacon of hope for Koreans, reigniting the torch of the independence
movement alive globally.

Most of the current youth do not face military occupation everyday nor the linguistic
banishment of their native tongue, yet a staggering majority globally encounter
constraints that confine their liberty and emancipation. Afghanistan, a modern nation
currently suppressed under Taliban rule, strips all women of natural rights, degrading
and belittling their existence and individuality to become a mere phantom to dutifully
serve men. Women are not allowed to speak, to pursue any professions or training in
medical fields, prohibited from working and running businesses, to enter public places
or travel on their own, and are barred from receiving higher education.

To simply exist as a female is a treacherous, shameful crime meant to be shunned, to
be silenced, to be hidden from society. However, despite the many restrictions
stripping them of any fundamental human rights, Afghan women have continued to
defy these limitations regardless of the fear hindering society’s sovereignty. Vastly

ranging from underground secret education, public street protests, and operating
hidden home-based businesses to support their families, words fail to express their
prominent strength of independence demonstrated by persistently defying society’s
oppression and refusing to succumb to injustice.

To utter, compose or contemplate the concept of “freedom” is not only a fundamental
right that all individuals should be entitled to, but also a rare privilege that millions are
yet to obtain. It is our responsibility to rekindle the dwindled beliefs of an unrestrained
and independent society for the millions whose hopes have been dimmed and
deemed to be a wistful disappointment. If a generation is composed of a community
where “freedom” and “independence” become disregarded and altered as a foreign
concept, these expressions will no longer serve as a normality in the future
generations. To accept a world where these notions of human survival have become
extinct in the community means that we, as a society, have failed to uphold our

ancestors’ legacy and deem ourselves ignorant to their sacrifices for everlasting
liberty and sovereignty.

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