Mariya Taher is an award-winning social activist with fifteen years of experience dedicated to ending gender-based violence through teaching, research, policy development, program creation, and direct service. She began her career working at domestic violence organizations such as Asian Women’s Shelter and W.O.M.A.N., Inc., Jane Doe Inc., and Saheli. In 2015, she cofounded Sahiyo, a leading transnational organization committed to empowering Asian and other communities to end female genital cutting (FGC). Mariya's pioneering work in leveraging storytelling to foster community engagement against FGC earned her the Human Rights Storytellers Award from the Muslim American Leadership Alliance in 2018. She has been a driving force in elevating FGM/C as a critical issue in the U.S., actively serving on the steering committee for the U.S. End FGM/C Network, advocating for and successfully supporting the passage of FGC-related policies in multiple states, and acting as an expert consultant for the 2021 Department of Justice - Office of Victims of Crime’s "Addressing Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting" technical assistance project. In 2022, she further contributed as a program strategist for SOAR’s transformative storytelling initiative, focused on South Asian survivors of gender-based violence. Her exceptional leadership in the nonprofit sector was recognized in 2023 when she received the prestigious Women of Worth award from L’Oreal Paris USA, honoring her as one of the top ten female nonprofit leaders.
Mariya is also an extensive writer and has contributed articles and stories to NPR’s Code Switch, HuffPost, The Fair Observer, Brown Girl Magazine, Solstice Literary Magazine, The Express Tribune, The San Francisco Examiner, and more.
She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University, where she was distinguished with the Graduate School of Arts & Social Sciences Dean’s Merit Scholarship and the Lesley University Graduate Student Leadership Award. Additionally, she possesses a Master's in Social Work from San Francisco State University and a B.A. from UC Santa Barbara in Religious Studies.
For inquiries, Mariya can be contacted at mariya@sahiyo.org.