{{Short description|Brazilian human rights activist (born 1988)}} {{Infobox person | image = Maha Mamo ONU Brasil.webm | caption = Maha Mamo in a #IBelong campaign video | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1988|02|29}} | citizenship = Brazil | occupation = Human rights activist | awards = Order of Rio Branco<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-12-01 |title=Página 4 do DOU - Seção 1 - Edição Extra A, número 225, de 01/12/2022 - Imprensa Nacional |url=https://pesquisa.in.gov.br/imprensa/jsp/visualiza/index.jsp?data=01/12/2022&jornal=600&pagina=4&totalArquivos=5 |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=Diário Oficial De União |issn=1677-7042}}</ref> | website = {{URL|mahamamo.com}} }}
'''Maha Mamo''' (born February 29, 1988)<ref>{{Twitter user|id=MahaMamo|name=MahaMamo}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=2020-12-25 |title="Imagine Living and Dying With No Documents?" Children of Civil Marriage in Syria |url=https://sirajsy.net/imagine-living-and-dying-with-no-documents-children-of-civil-marriage-in-syria/ |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=SIRAJ |language=en-US}}</ref> is a Brazilian human rights activist. She is an advocate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' #IBelong campaign, which seeks to end gender discrimination in nationality laws through local and international advocacy.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-12-13 |title=Maha Mamo, a stateless refugee in Brazil, talks about the challenges of life without a nationality |url=https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/maha-mamo/ |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Early life == Mamo was born in 1988 to Syrian nationals. Her father was Christian and her mother was Muslim,<ref>{{Cite news |date=2017-10-01 |title=Born stateless: Looking for a country to love me |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-41444804 |access-date=2024-02-17 |work=BBC Online |language=en-GB}}</ref> barring them from legal marriage and thus preventing Mamo and her two brothers, Souad and Eddie, from obtaining Syrian citizenship.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-10-06 |title=A gratidão ao Brasil da refugiada sem pátria que acabou perdendo irmão em assalto |url=https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-41531449 |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=BBC News |language=pt-BR}}</ref> In absence of identification documents during the Lebanese Civil War, Mamo and her brothers avoided potential security checkpoints, thus restricting them from education and healthcare services.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Londoño |first=Ernesto |date=2020-12-25 |title=Stateless, She Became the Face of a Largely Invisible Plight |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/25/world/americas/stateless-brazil.html |access-date=2024-02-16 |work=The New York Times}}</ref>
== Activism == In 2014, the Brazilian embassy invited Mamo and her siblings under a special visa for Syrians.<ref name=":0" /> Members of the United Nations helped her obtain a travel document, and Mamo began advocating for the creation of legal avenues to citizenship. ''The New York Times'' described Mamo as "the face" of this campaign.<ref name=":0" /> In 2018, after Brazil legalized stateless people to apply for citizenship, she became a registered citizen of Brazil.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Batha |first=Emma |date=2019-10-06 |title=I found a country, but lost my brother - stateless activist |url=https://news.trust.org/item/20191006223443-qazhk/ |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=Thomson Reuters Foundation}}</ref>
== References == <references />
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mamo, Maha}} Category:1988 births Category:Living people Category:Brazilian human rights activists Category:Brazilian women activists Category:Stateless people Category:Brazilian people of Syrian descent Category:Naturalized citizens of Brazil Category:People from Beirut Category:21st-century Brazilian women writers Category:Women motivational speakers Category:Brazilian motivational speakers