Maria Ayar is an Afghan singer. She is a resident of the United States, based in Fremont, California, from where she continues her music career in exile.

Maria never thought of becoming a singer: as she said at an interview, it happened when she was working in a 24-hour Afghan radio station in San Francisco with Farida Anwari. She used to sing just to entertain herself sometimes and Ms. Anwari found out that Maria has a very nice voice and encouraged her to sing.

Maria Ayar has always been a fan of the late Khanum Zheela so for the first time in an Afghan Party she performed her song "Tu Omide Man". Her first album Zindagi was released in 2002 and since then she has had concerts in U.S.A, Canada and Germany.

She has worked with musicians like Waheed Qasimi, Farhad Darya, and Ahmadshah Hasan. Her most recent songs are all composed by Waheed Qasimi and she also sang some songs which were composed by the talented and legendary musician Farhad Darya in the past years. She usually sing very smooth songs which have very strong and meaningful lyrics. She was nominated for the Best New Female singer in ATN Awards.