A social entrepreneur based in Marrakech, Maryam Montague founded Project Soar in 2013 with a handful of girls in one village and has grown it to 231 Soar Clubs across 8 countries. She shares the belief she inherited from her father and Gloria Steinem, the thirty-second ritual that helps girls find their voice, and what she tells anyone who wants to empower women just like she does.
Maryam Montague was born in Cairo to a father who ran CARE’s offices in Egypt and then Tunisia and introduced the birth control pill in both countries. She grew up watching him change things for women he would never meet. Hearing Gloria Steinem speak in high school cemented that path. Years later, Gloria reached out and invited Maryam to spend a day in her New York apartment, where they strategized about teen girl empowerment. A graduate degree in international relations at Johns Hopkins led her into humanitarian aid, with postings in Asia and Africa, and that work eventually brought her to Morocco.
There, she and her husband, an architect, fell under the country’s spell. They bought an olive grove in Marrakech and built Peacock Pavilions, a boutique hotel that became their home base. In 2013, Project Soar began as the hotel’s social-impact arm. Today, many retreat leaders, who visit their hotel, build in time with the Soar girls. When we went to Morocco for our annual Élanoura retreat in 2022 and 2023, we have also volunteered in Project Soar.
Since then, Project Soar has reached 36,000+ beneficiaries across 8 countries, and its Soar in a Bag empowerment kit earned the 2026 UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education. Their organization also created Talili, a sustainable menstrual underwear brand, and Ask Marwa, a chatbot for teen girls that the UN featured on its Sustainable Development Goals homepage. Project Soar also fights child marriage, is building a solution against school sexual harassment with Grand Challenges Canada, and aims to end period poverty in 1,000 schools with Pivotal Ventures, Melinda French Gates’s fund. Through all of it, Maryam helps girls understand their value, voice, body, rights and path. She believes everything else follows from that.
Tell us about yourself and what you’re building.
I am a social entrepreneur. I came to Morocco as part of my work in humanitarian aid overseas — a path that began with a graduate degree in international relations at Johns Hopkins and took me to postings in Asia and Africa. My husband, an architect, and I fell under Morocco’s spell. We bought an olive grove in Marrakech and built Peacock Pavilions, a boutique hotel that became our home base. In 2013, my nonprofit, Project Soar, was born as the social-impact arm of the hotel, starting with a handful of girls in one village.
Today Peacock Pavilions hosts 35+ retreats a year — yoga, creative, and life-coaching retreats led by outside leaders who bring their own groups. I also lead private retreats on Moroccan design, which grew out of my book Marrakesh by Design. Many retreat leaders build in time with the Soar girls, so guests connect directly with our mission — that’s actually how I met Erika of Elanoura! I also give a signature talk on How to Become a Social Entrepreneur at business schools, associations and founders’ networks.
I also run Project Soar and our portfolio for teen girls. I work daily from our Marrakech HQ with a 20-person team and 36 field-based Soar Facilitators. We’ve launched 231 Soar Clubs, held 7050 workshops, organized 444 community dialogues and reached 36,000+ beneficiaries across 8 countries. Our Soar in a Bag empowerment kit just earned us the 2026 UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education.
Having distributed 100,000+ menstrual products, we just launched Talili — our sustainable menstrual underwear brand meaning “freedom” — on the 2026 UN Day of the Girl. Every Talili kit links to Ask Marwa, our teen girl chatbot built with the UNFPA, Akharas Foundation, and Morocco’s Ministry of Health. Launched on June 30, 2026, Ask Marwa has already fielded thousands of questions from girls worldwide and was featured on the homepage of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This month we also launched the Arab world’s first menstrual storybook, When the Moon Reaches the Mountains.
We also fight child marriage, which affects 12 million+ girls yearly — work that won us the global With and For Girls Award — and in 2026, Grand Challenges Canada backed us to build a solution against school sexual harassment. Plenty to do!
What’s a belief about success, work, or how women should be treated that you live by?
My father was a feminist before I even had the word for it. He ran CARE’s offices in Egypt and then Tunisia, and introduced the birth control pill in both countries. He believed that a woman’s control over her own body was the foundation for everything else. I was born in Cairo to that father. I grew up watching him quietly change things for women he would never meet.
Hearing Gloria Steinem speak in high school was the moment that cemented it all for me. Years later, after the New York Times featured my work in their Saturday Profile column, Gloria reached out and invited me to spend a day with her in her New York apartment, strategizing about teen girl empowerment. It was a full-circle moment, sitting across from the woman I’d first heard speak as a teenager, now talking through strategy as colleagues. We stayed in touch after that. I was heartbroken when she died this past September, but her work lives on in tens of thousands of women — I’m lucky to be one of them.
The belief I live by now is really my father’s and Gloria’s, translated into my own work: empower girls to understand their value, voice, body, rights and path and everything else — safety, opportunity, leadership — follows from that. That’s why girls’ empowerment, including menstrual health, sits at the center of Project Soar’s work, not as an afterthought but as the starting point. With Pivotal Ventures, Melinda French Gates’s fund, we’ve launched an initiative to end period poverty in 1,000 schools.
What’s one small thing you did in your business to bring more meaning or light into the work you do?
One of my favorite small things happens at the start of every one of Soar’s 25 leadership workshops. Before anything else, each squad of girls stands up together and shouts, with their fists in the air: “I am Strong, I am Smart, I am Capable, I am a leader, I am a feminist, Girl Power!” It takes thirty seconds, but I’ve watched girls who arrived silent and unsure find their voice in that chant within weeks. It all starts in believing in yourself. It’s a small ritual, but it says everything we believe: every girl needs a posse — a squad that stands up and shouts with her, not just for her.
What would you tell the woman reading this who sees herself in your story but hasn’t started yet?
I live by a simple rule: one good deed is worth more than a thousand good aspirations. In other words — just get going. You don’t need the perfect plan, the funding secured, or the expertise in hand first. I didn’t know anything about manufacturing when the Soar team and I started developing Talili, our menstrual health brand, or anything about ending child marriage when we began that work either. I learned by doing, badly at first, then better — and looking back, that’s true of nearly everything I’ve built.
So if you see yourself in my story but haven’t started yet: pick the smallest true thing you can do today, and do it. And find your posse — the people who will stand with you and lift you up, the way our Soar girls do for each other in their own squads. No one builds anything meaningful alone. One good deed, one small action, one posse at a time — that’s genuinely how it happens.
Maryam’s LIFT Index Stage Is: Significance (Leopard)
This is the stage where you are living and working in full alignment with your purpose, leading in ways that are both impactful and energizing. You focus on expanding your influence, guiding others, and leaving a meaningful legacy. You carry responsibility with intention, mentoring the next generation and creating structures that allow your contributions to endure. Your goal is to elevate your impact while staying replenished, ensuring your unique gifts continue to inspire without draining your energy.
This is also an opportunity to step away from the path you’ve forged for others and into a new path for yourself.
Women of Élanoura features women who are leading with purpose, and finding ways to LIFT other women as they go.
Find Maryam’s work at peacockpavilions.com and projectsoar.org, and on Instagram at @maryammontague, @projectsoar, @peacockpavilionshotel, and @talilikit.
