About
The Tahirih Justice Center is a national nonprofit organization that serves women, girls, and all immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. Headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, Tahirih provides each survivor with free legal support and social services to secure their rights and build stable lives, while advocating to change the systems that contribute to their oppression. Its mission is to create a world in which all people share equal rights and live in safety and with dignity.
Mission
By amplifying the experiences of immigrant survivors in communities, courts, and Congress, Tahirih aims to create a world in which all people share equal rights and live in safety and with dignity. Tahirih is a secular, non-partisan organization founded on the principles of the Baha'i faith.
What they do
- Free legal services for immigrant survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and rape, forced marriage, human trafficking, female genital mutilation, honor crimes, and torture.
- Social services case management to help survivors build stable lives.
- Forced marriage protection, including dedicated programs and policy work.
- Policy advocacy on child marriage, domestic and sexual violence, fair immigration laws, gender-based asylum, international marriage brokers, and trafficking protections.
- Community outreach, research-based training and education, and litigation.
- A national pro bono attorney network that co-counsels cases and staffs legal clinics.
History
Layli Miller-Muro founded Tahirih in 1997 after her involvement in a case that revolutionized asylum law. The organization is named after Tahirih, a 19th-century Persian poet and advocate for women who was executed in 1852 for her beliefs; her last recorded words are remembered as a declaration that the emancipation of women could not be stopped. From its original Greater DC office (founded 1997), Tahirih has expanded to Houston (2009), Baltimore (2010), the San Francisco Bay Area (2016), and Atlanta (2018).
Scale and impact
According to its 2025 Impact Report, Tahirih's program teams responded to nearly double the volume of calls for help in 2025 and provided free legal and social services to more than 3,000 immigrant survivors of domestic and sexual violence and their families, supported by more than 1,200 pro bono attorneys. Its litigation team filed lawsuits to ensure delayed asylum cases were heard, and hundreds of clients received work permits, asylum, other statuses, and family reunification during the year.
Financials
According to ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, for fiscal year 2025 the Tahirih Justice Center (EIN 54-1858176) reported total revenue of $15,818,154, total expenses of $10,860,107, and net assets of $10,151,038. Contributions accounted for 95.6% of revenue. It is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.
Governance
ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer lists Archana Pyati as the organization's CEO. Tahirih's work is steered by its staff, a board of directors, and local advisory councils.
