Mayara published a video on her social media asking for help to see her daughter again. — Photo: Reproduction
Mayara Natale de Araújo, 38, published a video on Instagram last week asking for help to reunite with her daughter, who she claims she hasn't seen since March 2023. According to her, the separation began after a report of sexual abuse made by the girl's other mother.
The Court of São Vicente, on the coast of São Paulo, considered that there was not enough evidence to determine the loss of Mayara's family power, but maintained unilateral custody of the child with the other mother. g1 did not locate her defense until the last update of this report.
In the video, Mayara said that she decided to expose her story to try to get help and get back in touch with her daughter. To g1, she stated that she believes that her condition as an intersex woman is also related to the case.
“This process was carried out to kill me because of the very serious accusations against me, first using my intersex body, because it also has male parts, using my history regarding the rapes I experienced in my childhood and using my daughter as an instrument of weapon, in vicarious violence”, he stated.
The sentence has not yet ended the discussion of the case. According to Paulo César Borgomoni, one of Mayara's lawyers at BF França & Borgomoni Advogados, the case is in the process of being forwarded to the São Paulo Court of Justice, in the second instance, after an appeal by the defense.
The decision also determined the child's psychological follow-up for six months and a new psychosocial assessment at the end of the period. The objective is to analyze the possibility of resuming coexistence between Mayara and her daughter in a progressive and assisted way.
“We are facing institutional violence because Mayara is intersex, and the Judiciary, specifically, does not know this gender identity, which is a biological issue”, he stated.
According to the lawyer, the defense intends to challenge the decision in the Court of Justice.
Mayara Natale is an activist and is part of the Brazilian Association of Intersexes (Abrai) — Photo: Personal Archive
The case
According to the records, Mayara was married to the child's other mother for seven years. Their daughter was born from the union, who was seven years old at the time of the action. After the separation, in 2023, the process began that resulted in the separation between Mayara and her daughter. The complaint was registered on March 4 of that year.
According to the document, the case began after the other mother reported a change in her daughter's behavior and sought Child Protective Services, medical care and the police. Following the complaint, the relationship between Mayara and the child was interrupted.
The process is being processed in secret at the 1st Family and Succession Court of São Vicente, on the coast of São Paulo.
What the court considered
During the process, medical care and examinations were carried out to determine the suspicion of sexual abuse. In the sentence, the judge concluded that “there is no robust and unequivocal evidence of sexual abuse in the case file” capable of justifying the loss of Mayara's family power. Therefore, the request to remove family power was rejected.
The decision also considered other elements related to the coexistence between Mayara and her daughter. According to the judge, some circumstances “show fragility in the limits and borders of intimacy appropriate to the relationship between a parent and a young daughter”.
Despite rejecting the loss of family power, the Court maintained unilateral custody of the child with the other mother. The decision mainly took into account the psychosocial study carried out during the process.
According to the sentence, the child presented anxiety and fear at the possibility of resuming contact with Mayara. The document also records that she did not express a desire to have contact with her mother again.
As a result, the action was judged partially valid: unilateral custody was maintained with the other mother, while Mayara's request for loss of family power was rejected.
Next steps
The court ordered the child to undergo psychological monitoring for six months. After this period, a new psychosocial assessment must be carried out to analyze the possibility of resuming coexistence with Mayara.
According to the ruling, any rapprochement must occur in a progressive and assisted manner.
