Fahima Zaheen is the Chief Executive Officer of Afghan Association Paiwand and a powerful advocate for refugee women’s empowerment, healing, and self-reliance.

She migrated to Britain in 1996, carrying with her the weight of displacement and the quiet strength of survival. Her journey from navigating hardship in Afghanistan to overcoming systemic barriers in the UK has shaped her into a leader who understands struggle not as weakness but as fuel for transformation.

Fahima holds degrees in Media and Sociology from Southbank University and in Community Development and Political Studies from Birkbeck University. Her academic grounding informs her strategic, culturally sensitive approach to leadership and advocacy.

At Paiwand, Fahima has built more than a charity—she’s built a sanctuary. Over the past 5 years, she has directly empowered over 220 Afghan and migrant women through employment, mentoring, and hand-in-hand support during moments of crisis, including domestic violence. Her work is deeply personal: she walks alongside women as they rebuild their confidence, access training, and launch careers or home-based businesses rooted in their natural talents.

Under her leadership, Paiwand supports 2000 people. It saved half a million pounds in the last financial year alone for those who were supported in terms of housing, welfare, and immigration advice and casework.

Inspired by her own journey of overcoming, Fahima leads with empathy, clarity, and unwavering belief in women’s potential. Whether guiding a survivor to safety or helping a mother turn her sewing skills into income, her impact is measured in lives changed, voices strengthened, and futures rewritten.

Through trauma-informed programmes, multilingual outreach, and hands-on mentoring, Fahima Zaheen continues to prove that when women rise, communities heal—and that resilience, when nurtured, becomes legacy.