Rimpal Kaur Bajwa joined Tahirih in 2022. As a Public Policy Innovator, she works to support Tahirih’s mission of serving immigrants facing gender-based violence through advocacy and public policy research and compilation. Prior to joining Tahirih, Rimpal previously interned at the United States Equal Opportunity Commission and Grantmakers for Girls of Color.
Rimpal won the Americans United essay contest by writing a piece highlighting the dangers of Islamophobia in American government, institutions, and culture in direct response to the then-recent passage of the Muslim Ban. Upon coming to Georgetown University, she founded the Georgetown Sikh Student Association to help create a space for Sikh-Americans to find community on campus. She was recently awarded the Critical Language Scholarship for the study of Punjabi in India. During the summer of 2022, Rimpal lived and studied Punjabi in an intensive and immersive study abroad program based in Chandigarh, Punjab.
I am inspired by Tahirih’s mission to center the voices, experiences and needs of immigrant women and girls, who are relegated to the margins of society and forced to endure countless forms of oppression in silence. Through their resistant work, Tahirih has encouraged me to reimagine a gender-equal world where power and agency is respected in everyone—regardless of their identity.
Education: Georgetown University, BS
Languages: English, Punjabi, Spanish, Hindi
Hometown: Puyallup, Washington