LOCAL LIFE
BLACKTOWN’ S FINEST...
Maryam Zahid, Founder and CEO of Afghan Women on the Move. by Lorna Gordon
In 1999, at only twenty years old, Maryam Zahid arrived in Australia under the UNHCR’ s Women at Risk program. She arrived as a refugee with three younger siblings to take care of, leaving behind a life of potential violence and no opportunity. She didn’ t speak English, had no work experience, and was suddenly responsible for providing not just for herself, but for her younger family members.
Her arrival in Australia was a culture shock; young Maryam had only experienced Australia in magazines and thought that that her future was going to be living beside the harbour and enjoying the beach.
“ I had only seen the Opera House in magazines,” she laughs.“ I landed in Melbourne first and thought,‘ Where is it?’ Within three months, I moved to Sydney and made Blacktown my home.”
While she had found a place for herself and her siblings to call home, life was far from easy. She had to navigate Centrelink, manage bills, and learn the workings of a democratic society, something that brought both fear and aspiration.
“ It took time for me to understand how everything worked, but at least I was safe,” she says.“ The rest was up to me.”
She immediately set out to educate herself and gain the qualifications to help her have a better life. But rather than go to TAFE, which any 20 year old who had grown up in Australia would, she decided she needed a different route to get her schooling.
“ I was tiny when I arrived,” Maryam recalls.“ I convinced the principal of a local high school to let me enrol. I told them I wanted to be a school student again, even though I was 20, so to my school mates I pretended to be 16.”
Her principal and teachers knew the truth and allowed her to study alongside the younger students, keeping up the idea that she was much younger than she was.
To make ends meet Maryam was given financial help by Centrelink and also worked nights and weekends in a kebab shop. This was on top of her school work and caring for her siblings, her determination not only made them a home, but saw her eventually complete her HSC.
Over time, Maryam made a place for herself in Western Sydney’ s growing Afghan community. She worked, studied, and built networks that eventually opened doors into the community sector. Roles in refugee support and domestic violence prevention gave her valuable insight into the struggles faced by women from migrant and refugee backgrounds. It was through this work that she noticed something was missing, which she decided to do something about.
“ Mainstream services were very general. Clients came and went, but nobody was going to the people who were too scared to walk into an office. I thought what if I go to them, instead of waiting for them to come to me?”
It was this simple but radical thought that planted the first seed of Afghan Women on the Move( AWOTM). In 2017, Maryam began hosting informal cooking sessions and sharing stories online. She launched a Facebook page, and within months, more than 3,000 Afghan women had joined.
She found through the online community that there was a real need for support in specific areas, urgent advice on how to manage finances, what to do about domestic violence and how to get help for their health. Women who had never set foot in a government office suddenly had a safe space to ask questions and share experiences. Maryam admitted
6 ISSUE 55 // OCTOBER 2025 theindependentmagazine. com. au BLACKTOWN CITY INDEPENDENT