By Daniel McElroy

Mai Khoi, a Vietnamese singer known for her vocal pro-democracy activism, was detained the morning of Tuesday, March 27, 2018 upon returning to Hanoi from a concert tour to promote her new album in Europe.

According to Mai Khoi’s Australian husband Benjamin Swanton, she texted him around 9:15am on Tuesday morning to let him know she had landed. Less than a half hour later, she informed him that she had been detained–and was unreachable for the following eight hours, while calls to airport and law enforcement authorities went unanswered. Upon her release, it became clear that immigration authorities had questioned her about her movements in Europe, and had also confiscated copies of her newest album, “Bat Dong” (“Disagreement”).

Mai Khoi’s activist record has a long and well documented history. In addition to having met Barack Obama during his 2015 visit to Vietnam, she was also one a small number of opponents of the single-party Communist government to run for a parliamentary seat in 2016. Then, in 2017 she vigorously protested Donald Trump’s visit to Vietnam by holding up a sign reading “Piss on you Trump” along his motorcade’s route.

The hit song from Mai Khoi’s new album is called “Please, Sir”, and calls on the Communist party’s leader to allow the Vietnamese people to to “sing, publish, share, and travel freely.” She has been likened to Pussy Riot for her music’s direct and unwavering call for justice.

Thus far, Mai Khoi and her husband have been forcefully evicted from their home three times, and she has been effectively banned from performing in Vietnam since her failed parliamentary bid. However, even as the ruling Communist party has initiated a fresh crackdown on dissent in recent months and caused a mass exodus of dissidents fearing imprisonment, they have mostly left Mai Khoi to herself, likely owning her to high profile. This is the first time she has been prevented from traveling freely.