Rosa Bonaparte

Rosa Filomena "Muki" Cardoso Bonaparte Soares (18 February 1957 – 8 December 1975) was an East Timorese revolutionary and women's rights activist. Born in what was then Portuguese Timor, in 1973 she won a scholarship to study in Portugal, where she joined the Casa dos Timores and became involved in Marxist and anti-colonial politics. Returning to Timor in late 1974, she was a founding member of Fretilin and served on the party's central committee. Known for her intensity and small figure, she was called "the petite revolutionary", "Rosa Luxemburg", and to her Fretilin comrades, "Muki".

In August 1975, Bonaparte became the first secretary-general of the Popular Organization of Timorese Women (OPMT), the Fretilin women's wing. As OPMT leader, she led the group's humanitarian work in establishing nurseries for orphans and other vulnerable children, and oversaw literacy, health, and livelihood initiatives for Timorese women. Bonaparte was present for Fretilin's unilateral declaration of independence from Portugal on 28 November 1975, and was reportedly the first to unfurl the new flag of the Democratic Republic of East Timor. She was killed by Indonesian soldiers in Dili during the invasion of East Timor. Bonaparte is remembered today for her significant role in East Timor's women's movement and anticolonial struggle during the 1970s.