Dalya Attar

Dalya Attar (born October 17, 1990) is an American politician who currently serves in the Maryland House of Delegates, representing District 41 in northwest, northern and southwest Baltimore City.

Early life and education
Attar was born fourth of six children to an Iranian-Jewish father and a Moroccan-Jewish mother. She was raised as a Sephardi Orthodox Jew in Baltimore, where she attended the Bais Yaakov School for Girls. Attar later graduated from the University of Baltimore, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice in 2011, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore, where she earned her Juris Doctor degree in 2014.

While attending the University of Baltimore, Attar worked as a paralegal for Greenspan, Hitzel & Schrader until 2015, when she became a trial attorney for the firm. In the same year, she also began working as an assistant state's attorney in the Baltimore State's Attorney office, prosecuting narcotics and firearms cases.

Attar developed an interest in criminal justice while in middle school, and became interested in politics in high school. She has cited Joe Lieberman, Sarah Schenirer, and Karen Chaya Friedman as her role models.

In the legislature
On June 9, 2017, Attar announced that she would run for the Maryland House of Delegates in District 41. During the Democratic primary, she ran on a platform of spurring development, improving schools, and reforming the juvenile justice system. Attar won the Democratic primary in June 2018, defeating incumbents Angela Gibson and Bilal Ali.

Attar was sworn into the Maryland House of Delegates on January 9, 2019. She is the first Orthodox Jew elected to the Maryland General Assembly and the highest-ranking Orthodox Jewish woman in American history. Attar served on the Environment and Transportation Committee from 2019 to 2020, afterwards serving as a member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Crime and policing
In March 2019, Attar voted against a bill that would allow school resource officers to carry guns in Baltimore schools. She also supported a bill that would allow Johns Hopkins University to have its own private police force.

During the 2020 legislative session, Attar introduced a bill that would require incarceration for violent offenders with open warrants. She also supported a bill that would ban driver's license suspensions over unpaid parking tickets.

Education
Attar supports improving public schools and providing publicly-funded scholarships for private schools.

Israel
During the 2024 legislative session, after Zainab Chaudry, the director of the state Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) chapter, was temporarily suspended from the state Commission on Hate Crime Response and Prevention for making Facebook posts comparing Israel to Nazi Germany and calling attendees of the March for Israel "genocide sympathizers", Attar introduced legislation to remove Chaudry from the commission and replace her with "two members of the Muslim community". The bill was amended to remove representatives from organizations including CAIR from the hate crimes commission by requiring members to be advocates for protected classes under Maryland's hate crime laws.

Social issues
Attar supports using an independent redistricting commission to draw Maryland's legislative districts.

During the 2020 legislative session, Attar introduced a bill that would prevent husbands from having a civil divorce unless they granted their wife a gett.

In 2022, Attar voted against a bill that would expand the types of medical professionals who can perform abortions in the state, and voted to sustain Governor Larry Hogan's veto on the bill.

During the 2023 legislative session, Attar introduced legislation to move Maryland's 2024 primary date from April 23—the first day of Passover, which prevents Orthodox Jewish voters from participating in elections—to May 14. The bill's contents were added to another bill, which passed and was signed by Governor Wes Moore.

Transportation
During the 2022 legislative session, Attar supported a bill that would require the Maryland Department of Transportation to seek federal approval for the Red Line.

Personal life
Attar is married to Asaf Mehrzadi, a longtime family friend. Together, they have two children.