Mai Khôi

They lived in Hanoi until she fled to the U.S. to escape prosecution, in November 2020 becoming a scholar in residence at the University of Pittsburgh's Scholars at Risk program on an Artist Protection Fund fellowship. Khôi lives in a residence provided by the Pittsburgh-based nonprofit City of Asylum and serves on the International Advisory Board of the International Free Expression Project, another Pittsburgh-based nonprofit. These two nonprofits also co-sponsored Khôi for an Artist Protection Fund fellowship in residence at the University of Pittsburgh which she is currently participating in.

In 2018, Amnesty International named Khôi as one of the "12 inspiring human rights activists to follow" for that year. Later that year, she was detained for eight hours at Nội Bài International Airport in Hanoi after returning from a European tour, with all copies of her new album Dissent in her possession confiscated by the authorities.

When Obama's successor Donald Trump visited the country in 2017, Khôi held up a banner reading "PeacePiss on you Trump" in protest of Trump's alleged racism and supposed failure to promote human rights. The following day, she and her husband were evicted from their Hanoi apartment following a visit by government agents.

In 2016, Khôi took part in environmental protests against Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation following the marine life disaster caused by its waste dumping. She also applied to run as an independent for a seat in the National Assembly of Vietnam, but was disqualified from participating by the Vietnamese Fatherland Front. Following her attempt to enter politics, she was subject to increased official persecution, including police raids of her concerts and landlords being pressured by authorities to evict her and her husband from their home. After 2017, she leased a flat under a friend's name in a secret location in Hanoi.

She was one of the political dissidents that U.S. President Barack Obama met with on his visit to the country in 2016. She had gone into hiding before the meeting to avoid being detained and prevented from attending the meeting. The following day she was visited by four policemen who intimidated her.

Khôi married her Australian partner, Benjamin Swanton, in 2013.

In 2010, Khôi achieved national fame after winning the Vietnam Television 2010 Album of the Year Award, using her national platform to agitate for better women's rights and LGBT rights in her country. For example, she spoke against Đàm Vĩnh Hưng's suggestion that domestic violence was "acceptable" against women who were "too aggressive", and criticised social acceptance of violence against women.

Đỗ Nguyễn Mai Khôi (born 1982), known professionally as Mai Khoi, is a Vietnamese singer, artist, and political activist. Described as the "Lady Gaga of Vietnam" and also compared to Russian artist-activists Pussy Riot, she began as an award-winning pop singer before her outspoken criticism of the Government of Vietnam's censorship and lack of democracy led to government persecution and restrictions on her freedom of speech. Khôi has also criticised Google and Facebook for cooperating with internet censorship in Vietnam. In 2018 she received the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent in recognition of her democracy activism.

Đỗ Nguyễn Mai Khôi was born in 1982 in Cam Ranh, Vietnam.