This real-life case study examined the factors contributing to ethnic women not being granted citizenship, investigated the patriarchal social structure of the Lahu, and surveyed taboos for women that led to Lahu women not being able to submit their citizenship request by themselves and leading to these women not being granted citizenship. A change of lifestyle and belief systems is a channel for ethnic women to be free from their patriarchal societies infested with taboos for women. This story centered on a fight for a Lahu woman to gain her citizenship and to help other ethnic women in this issue. Nevertheless, ethnic women and stateless individuals have been forced to withstand the existing patronage system and corruption. They have to go through exploitative individuals and state officers and the general public with ethnic bias and discrimination. Solving the citizenship problem of ethnic groups requires collaboration among state officers, NGOs and villagers. This is because officers at the Administration Department and operational officers have been slow to implement state policies on verifying the status of ethnic individuals within a timeframe. To follow up the steps of granting citizenship, ethnic and stateless people have to resort to different techniques including organization of protests at city halls. Development organizations should be involved in documentation and provide moral support with participation of volunteer leaders.