Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma (aka Myanmar) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She was not at the ceremony held in her honor, she was detained by the military junta that rules Burma. (The National League for Democracy won a majority of parliament seats in an election in 1990, but the Burmese junta refused to recognize the results).
In 1999, knowing that if she left Burma, she would never be allowed to return, Aung San Suu Kyi remained in Burma while her husband, Michael Aris, was dying of prostate cancer in England.
To this day, Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest.
Editor's note: Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in November 2010 and elected to Pyithu Hluttaw, the lower house of the Burmese parliament, in April 2012.