Our Founders

Paul Bashir

Co-Founder and Director

Paul is an artist and creator but his role as animal rights activist takes the front seat. Prior to founding AV, Paul spent nearly a decade deeply involved in hip-hop music as an MC, communicating through lyrics. The shift from music to street activism was a natural progression, as his passion for music came from a place of wanting to create significant change.

Paul is also passionate about whole foods nutrition. In 2012, Paul studied to become a certified plant-based nutritionist through the T. Colin Campbell Center of Nutrition Studies. During this period of his life, Paul radically transformed his health and the lives of others through private consultations and blogging about a plant based diet. Today, Paul’s purpose in spreading the vegan message is strictly about animal rights and goes far beyond health. 

Paul has made it his life’s mission to fight against animal torture and abuse, which he sees as the biggest injustice in the world. He credits the movie Earthlings and fellow animal rights activist Gary Yourofsky as major influences in his activism. Paul’s activism began on YouTube, however, he soon realised the power of speaking to people face to face. Together with Asal, Paul formed the first Cube of Truth and established Anonymous for the Voiceless in April, 2016. 

Paul travels the world spreading the vegan message through hosting workshops, giving speeches, coordinating outreach actions, and attending Cube of Truth events while directing AV. His vision to professionally and effectively take action on the streets is shared by hundreds of thousands of AV supporters.

Asal

Co-Founder and Director

Asal has always been passionate about art, music and fashion. She wanted to become a fashion designer since she was very young but she became more passionate about music growing up and ended up studying music. She was previously working in different fields such as catering and interpreting before founding AV.

Asal has always been an animal lover. She watched videos of what goes on in slaughterhouses and fur farms where animals are killed for food, clothing etc. Recounting a video she watched in 2013 of foxes being anally electrocuted and skinned alive, Asal remembers, “I just shut my laptop, put it away, and cried for hours. I felt so angry and helpless and I couldn’t stop thinking about how cruel and disgusting this was. I was moved to post a status on Facebook later that day saying, ‘I wish I had the power to stop animal cruelty.’ ” Someone commented on this status saying that Asal should go vegan if she wanted to do something about it. Asal went vegan the next day after googling veganism all night. Right away, she sought out ways to get involved in animal rights activism. However, she became frustrated because existing approaches at the time didn’t seem to be making enough of an impact.

It is from these feelings of frustration and passion that AV was created. Together with Paul Bashir, the duo hosted street demonstrations in Melbourne, Australia. Their activism was about getting out there and reaching as many people as possible, which led to creating a manual for others around the world to do the same.

Today, Asal’s role as founder and director of AV involves managing different teams, legal work, finances, merchandising and running workshops online and in-person as well as providing support to AV organizers and other team members.

In her free time Asal enjoys exercising, doing yoga, creating healthy recipes, dancing and singing.