Bashir received her Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1988. Her dissertation was titled "Topics in Kalasha Syntax: An areal and typological perspective".[2][3]
Much of the focus of Bashir's work has been on the Dardic languages. She wrote her thesis and a number of related articles on the Kalasha language. Her analyses of Kalasha grammar, based on texts and her own fieldwork, have included discussion of the typological and genetic relationships of Kalasha to Khowar and broader Indo-Aryan and Iranian languages.[3]
Bashir and linguist Hans Henrich Hock were editors of the 2016 book The Languages and Linguistics of South Asia: A Comprehensive Guide, part of De Gruyter's The World of Linguistics series.[6]