Mazahir Salih

Mazahir Salih is vice-president of the Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa (CWJ), a dynamic grassroots organization based in Iowa City whose membership is comprised mostly of recent immigrants of Latin American and African origin. As coordinator of CWJ’s Immigration Committee, Ms. Salih has been at the forefront of a host of local initiatives to defend the rights of low-income and immigrant workers including: passing the Midwest’s first Community ID program in Johnson County; convening a coalition of university, labor, and community allies to host free, high-quality naturalization clinics and educational forums on DACA II and DAPA; planning large-scale direct actions in defense of local residents facing deportation; organizing workers to recover unpaid wages; and winning a commitment from county law enforcement to reverse a prior policy of honoring all ICE detention requests. She advocates for the civil rights of local residents as a member of the Iowa City Police Citizens Review Board, and traveled to Washington, DC to testify before members of the Senate Judiciary Committee during immigration reform debates in 2013.

A first-generation immigrant to the U.S. from Sudan, Ms. Salih has been a community activist for decades. Shortly after arriving in the U.S., she attended the Parent Leadership Institute and served as the Vice-President of the Head Start Policy Council in Alexandria, Virginia. In addition to her volunteer leadership with CWJ in Iowa City, she has held the position of academic secretary with the local Sudanese-American Community Association. She is studying electroneurodiagnostic technology at Kirkwood Community College, and lives in Iowa City with her husband and five children.