Layli Miller-Muro
Layli Miller-Muro is an American attorney and activist. She is the founder and Executive Director of the Tahirih Justice Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting women from Human rights abuse through the provision of legal aid and public policy advocacy.
Human rights advocacy
Miller-Muro founded the organization in 1997 following her involvement in Matter of Kasinga, a high-profile case that set national precedent and revolutionized asylum law in the United States. Fauziya Kassindja, a 17-year-old girl who had fled Togo in fear of a forced polygamous marriage and a tribal practice known as female genital mutilation, was granted asylum in 1996 by the US Board of Immigration Appeals. This decision opened the door to recognizing gender-based persecution as grounds for asylum. Using her portion of the proceeds from a book she and Kassindja co-authored about the case (Do They Hear You When You Cry? Delacorte Press, 1998), Miller-Muro established Tahirih.
Prior to joining Tahirih as Executive Director in 2001, Miller-Muro was an attorney at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Arnold & Porter where she practiced international litigation and maintained a substantial pro bono practice. Prior to joining Arnold & Porter, Miller-Muro was an attorney-advisor at the U.S. Department of Justice, Board of Immigration Appeals.
Recognition
In 2012, Miller-Muro was recognized for her work in Tahirih and named one of Newsweek/The Daily Beast's 150 Most Fearless Women in the World.[1] In the same year, she received the Diane Von Fürstenberg award.[2]
See also
References
External links
- Tahirih Justice Center
- Biography
- Justice and Equality – a basis for change in our troubled world, a talk given by Miller-Muro at the 5th annual Margaret Stevenson Memorial Dinner and Lecture, July 17, 2004.
- Innovate: Justice: Layli Miller-Muro@TEDxGrandRapids, May 12, 2011
