Former Ivory Coast First Lady Simone Gbagbo has gone from hiding in a bunker in an attempt to avoid arrest to defiantly announcing she will run for president.
In an extraordinary comeback, the controversial 76-year-old was this week surprisingly allowed to contest October's elections, calling on supporters to help 'build a new nation'.
For years, Gbagbo worked side-by-side with her ex-husband Laurent, and was considered to be the power behind his throne.
Now, with a criminal conviction and a divorce behind her, she takes centre stage as a presidential candidate in her own right.
Gbagbo was Ivory Coast's first lady from 2000 to 2011 and was dubbed 'the iron lady' due to her reputation for toughness.
While her supporters fondly called her 'maman' (French for 'mum'), Gbagbo was feared within the party she set up with her husband, the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI).
'All the ministers respect me. And they often consider me above them,' she told French magazine L'Express during her husband's presidency.
At rallies, Gbagbo often invoked her evangelist Christian faith, firing off spirited, eloquent speeches in support of her husband.
Gbagbo met Laurent in 1973, at a time when both were powerful figures in Ivory Coast's trade union movement. Gbagbo had degrees in history and linguistics, and as a teacher, was a key member of various educators' unions.
The couple's relationship was also built on the struggle against then-president Félix Houphouët-Boigny.
The Gbagbos protested against Houphouët-Boigny's autocracy, which lasted for 33 years, calling for multi-party democracy.
As a result of their activism, the pair were jailed several times.
'I engaged in political struggle against the former regime alongside men,' Gbagbo recalled in her L'Express interview. 'I spent six months in prison, I was beaten, molested, left for dead. After all those trials, it's logical that people don't mess with me.'
In 1982 the pair co-founded the FPI. That same year, Laurent fled to France following harassment from Houphouët-Boigny's security forces and Gbagbo was left to raise the couple's twin daughters alone.
After six years apart, Laurent returned and the pair married in an intimate ceremony.
In a surprise result, he lost to Alassane Ouattara - Ivory Coast's current president - but refused to accept the result. This attempt to stay put sparked another devastating civil war in which more than 3,000 people died.
Eventually, as pro-Ouattara forces backed by French troops advanced on the presidential residence, the couple took refuge in a bunker. They were arrested there, effectively ending the five-month conflict.
At her trial five years later, Gbagbo described her detention at the hotel. 'I myself arrived with my buttocks exposed, my nudity exposed. I was subjected to several attempted rapes in broad daylight.'
Gbagbo was sentenced to 20 years for 'attempting to undermine the security of the state' but received an amnesty and is now allowed to stand in next month's election.
The former first lady has been quietly and methodically rebuilding her political base, founding the Movement of Capable Generations (MGC) and pledging a 'modernized' and 'prosperous' Ivory Coast.
Gbagbo's candidacy symbolizes a powerful moment in a country where women remain largely underrepresented in national leadership.
With a reputation for activism and democracy, she stands as a significant challenger to Ouattara in next month's poll, aiming to become Ivory Coast's first female president.
