Note: Single-source report; awaiting corroboration.
Mariyam Tadein was 21 years old when she was sentenced to death in southern Thailand after authorities found over half a million tablets of “yaba” at the house she rented. Although she stated the drugs were not hers, she was charged with drug trafficking and received a death sentence, while another person was executed by lethal injection. Mariyam spent two years on death row wearing a sign labeled "Death Penalty" and faced the threat of execution for eight years before coming to terms with her fate during a special training course designed to prepare inmates for execution.
During a major flood, Mariyam was transferred to another prison, where she learned she had been granted a royal pardon, along with eight others, sparing her from execution. Although relieved to be alive, she expected to spend the rest of her life in prison. To cope, she focused on learning to sew and participated in prison work, finding meaning in the repetition and detail of fabric patterns. These activities granted her privileges, such as later shower times, and helped ease the challenges of life with 4,000 other women.
Mariyam faced further difficulties when family visits stopped and her husband remarried. She chose not to dwell on her past or personal losses but instead concentrated on her prison work and fabric patterns to maintain her mental strength. A significant moment came during the 2004 tsunami when she was assigned to sew cloth bags for bodies, marking a connection between patterns of life and death.