Mariya Taher is a social activist and writer who has been involved in the gender violence field for over eight years, working at W.O.M.A.N., Inc., The Women’s Foundation of California, and San Francisco State University. She received an MA in Social Work from San Francisco State University and a BA from the University of California Santa Barbara, where she majored in Religious Studies. Taher has contributed articles to New Welsh Review, Brown Girl Magazine, Solstice Literary Magazine, Global Voices, The Express Tribune, The San Francisco Examiner, BayWoof and the Imagining Equality Project. She is currently pursuing an MFA in creative writing at Lesley University.