Basira Paigham

Basira Paigham (born 1997/1998)^[1] is an Afghan LGBTQ-rights activist.

Life and activism

In 2015, Paigham began anonymously using social media to connect with other LGBTQ individuals in Afghanistan.^[1] In 2016, she created a Facebook group specifically for LGBT Afghans.^[1] In 2018, Paigham and some of her fellow activists organized community meet-ups in Kabul, as well as organizing mutual aid for fellow LGBT Afghans.^[1] During this time, Paigham also spoke with international groups and journalists under a pseudonym about her life as an LGBTQ person living in Afghanistan.^[1] She also gained some notability domestically as a women's rights activist.^[1]

In 2021, in the days after the Taliban claimed power, Paigham began receiving threatening phone calls from unknown numbers, and her apartment was searched.^[2] In October 2021 she obtained a visa to enter Pakistan, and from there she fled to Ireland.^[3] Paigham was recognized by the BBC as one of the 100 most influential women of the year; at the time, she was living in an Irish refugee camp in Dungarvan.^[1][3][4][5] While living in the refugee camp, she began working with refugee children to engage them in positive and community-focused activities. Following the BBC's recognition, some parents began preventing their children from meeting with Paigham, "fearing she would teach them about homosexuality", and Paigham faced harassment on social media.^[5][6] In Afghanistan, her family was targeted by the Taliban;^[5] her father and brother were detained for two weeks in February 2022 and accused of "fostering a homosexual girl and supporting Western values against Islam and Afghanistan".^[6] A few weeks later, her mother was beaten by neighbors.^[6]

Paigham began working as a hospital cleaner, sending money back to her family to finance a move to a larger city in Afghanistan.^[6]

Paigham was a keynote speaker at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom's 2022 Born With Pride Conference. In 2023, she was made a UN Rights and Religion Fellow of Outright International.^[7]

Personal life

Paigham is a lesbian^[1] and queer.^[6] She has said that her family is unsupportive of her sexuality.^[1]