Maryam Zahid is an award-wining Afghan-Australian human rights champion, diversity and inclusion practitioner, self-taught artist and social commentator. 

Maryam Zahid is the founder of Afghan Women on the Move, an organisation that supports the health, mental wellbeing, individual growth and development of Afghan and other women of diverse migrant backgrounds. Maryam’s work aims to help women reach their full potential in all aspects of life: employment, study, art, financial literacy, swimming and more.  

Maryam grew up in Afghanistan and arrived in Australia just before her twentieth birthday. Having missed out on the opportunity to go to school as a child, Maryam convinced the principal of Blacktown’s Mitchell High to allow her to enrol, despite being several years older than the other senior students.  

Maryam has over twenty years’ experience in the community sector, working in domestic violence, refugee resettlement and with newly arrived migrants.  

She was Blacktown City Woman of the Year in 2019 and is currently a Westpac Social Change Fellow for 2024. She studied Values and Public Policy at Oxford University and graduated from Stanford University Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders. 

Alongside her community work, Maryam is an emerging playwright and exhibition producer. 

We are Blacktown is a UTS Impact Studios production.
Producers: Britta Jorgensen, Jane Curtis, Celine Teo-Blockey 
Executive Producer: Olivia Rosenman
Sound design: Melissa May
Research: Jackie May
Podcast artwork: Alexandra Morris
Theme music: Beaming by FRIDAY