In 1979 she started Southall Black Sisters with Pragna Patel. SBS is an organization that helps Asian and black women who are experiencing domestic violence, sexual violence, forced marriage, etc. She started Women Against Fundamentalism in 1989 with Patel, Clara Connolly, and Nira Yuval-Davis in response to the Rushdie affair. In 1992 Sahgal wrote in "Refusing Holy Orders: Women and Fundamentalism in Britain" and edited it with Yuval-Davis. In 2003 Sahgal became the head of Amnesty International's gender unit. In 2010 Sahgal was fired because she wrote an article for the "Sunday Times" criticising Amnesty's associations with Moazzam Begg. She left the organization. The Centre for Secular Space was started by Sahgal in 2011.