In own words, Mina is “trans, disabled, queer, autistic, and dealing with mental health issues”, and she speaks out about her journey and challenges along the way to help others who might have similar experiences.

Mina moved to Glasgow two years ago after falling in love with the city, and she has built an amazing queer and trans community around herself including a Facebook group she’s set up for LGBT+ people in Queen’s Park area called Queer’s Park.

Until recently she has worked for Inclusion Scotland supporting an internship programme for disabled people with organisations across Scotland, as well as building a network of disabled change makers. Mina also worked on the Access to Elected Office Fund (Scotland), a fund for disabled people to access while seeking elected office to decrease barriers they face and put them on a more equal playing field to non-disabled candidates.

She’s on the National Committee for Living Rent, Scotland’s tenants’ union, and she advocates for homes for people and not for profit, working to ensure that everyone in Scotland has decent and affordable housing. Earlier this month, Mina went to Cyprus (jealous, who we?) for a meeting of The European Action Coalition for the Right to Housing and to the City, to discuss shared challenges and best practices and to explore how Living Rent can work with housing movements across Europe.

Earlier this year she volunteered for Scottish Queer International Film Festival (SQIFF) and Document Human Rights Film Festival (both in Glasgow), because she believes that it is important to have media by and for LGBT+ people, and to raise awareness of human rights issues around the world.