Meet Qasim Rashid

Qasim Rashid is a human rights lawyer who built his career fighting for survivors of domestic violence, asylum seekers, and low-income communities. He and his family immigrated from Pakistan to the United States when he was five. As a child, Qasim grew up in Section 8 housing in DuPage County. Qasim’s parents, who were both teachers, instilled in him a deep commitment to serving humanity and upholding justice.

Qasim earned his first paycheck at 15 years old when he got a job working the night shift at a union Dominick’s grocery store in Glen Ellyn. After graduating from Glenbard South High School, he studied at North Central College before graduating from UIC in 2005. Qasim and his wife Ayesha married at the Will County Courthouse in 2007. Today they have three children in Naperville public schools. Ayesha had the vision and encouragement to convince Qasim to pursue his J.D. at Richmond Law, and advance his human rights advocacy for marginalized communities.

Throughout his legal career, Qasim has seen how the country’s laws and systems unfairly worked for those who already had money and power and left everyone else behind. He’s running for Congress to demand justice and ensure that the government works for everyone.

Outside of public service, Qasim is an author, lawyer, and dad joke aficionado. The loves of his and Ayesha’s lives are their three children, aged 14, 10, and 7. They are trying to convince Qasim to adopt a special breed of dog that gets sad when you feed it cantaloupe…known as a melon collie.