For nearly a decade, Mariya Taher has worked in the anti-gender violence field in the areas of research, policy, program development, teaching, and direct service. In 2015, she cofounded Sahiyo to empower Asian communities to end female genital cutting (FGC), and in 2017, was named 1 of 6 experts to watch on FGC by NewsDeeply.com. In 2017, she joined the Topos Partnership, an organization that seeks to change the landscape of public understanding where public interest issues play out.
The Manhattan Young Democrats named her a 2017 Engendering Progress honoree and ABC news did a special feature on her, entitled: Underground: American Woman Underwent Female Genital Mutilation Comes Forward. Mariya is a prolific writer in fiction and nonfiction with essays and short stories appearing on NPR, Ms. Magazine, Huffington Post, Solstice Literary Magazine, The Express Tribune, The San Francisco Examiner, The Flexible Persona, Cecile’s Writers’ Magazine, and more. Follow her on Twitter @mariyataher83.
