The activities of the Unique Zan Foundation are directed by members of its Board of Directors.
Bita Daryabari, Founder
Ms. Bita Daryabari began her career in the telecommunications industry at GammmaLink, Inc., an early pioneer in computer fax and networking products. Following Gammalink, she moved to MCI Communications where she ...
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Diane Tober, Exec. Director
Diane Tober, PhD, received her doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley/University of California, San Francisco Medical Anthropology Program in 2000. She has had an interest in Iranian culture for over twenty years, and specialized in Iran and ...
> read moreBita Daryabari, Founder
Ms. Bita Daryabari received a B.S in Computer Science from California State University, Hayward, and M.S. in Telecommunications Management from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. She began her career in the telecommunications industry at GammmaLink, Inc., an early pioneer in computer fax and networking products. Following Gammalink, she moved to MCI Communications, where she distinguished herself as a "President's Circle" top achiever on multiple occasions.
Currently, Ms. Daryabari is working with a number of charitable organizations, including The Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL), founded by Sakeena Yacoobi, an internationally known women's human rights activist. Their latest collaboration includes the building of an all-girls school in Kabul. In her next project, Ms. Daryabari is enabling the training of Afghan women by providing micro-financing through organizations such as AIL and Creating Hope International.
In 2008, through her charity, the Unique Zan Foundation, Ms. Daryabari joined forces with Relief International to build a women's center in Palestine. This center will help women acquire necessary job-related skills in order to improve their lives, and ultimately their communities.
Other philanthropic endeavors include a recent $100,000 donation to the British Museum and Iran Heritage Foundation for the Shah Abbas Exhibition.
She has also created the Bita Daryabari Endowment for Persian Literature and Poetry with a contribution of $2.5 million. This endowment will allow the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University to offer courses and organize lectures and conferences on Persian art, literature, and poetry. As part of this endowment, each year a new, internationally renowned scholar of Persian Literature will be selected to be a Visiting Professor at Stanford, and teach courses on some aspect of Persian Literature. Additionally, the endowment will provide an annual Bita Prize in Letters to an Iranian artist or writer who has achieved excellence in their field. The first recipient of this award was Iranian poet Simin Behbehani, in March of 2008.
Ms. Daryabari serves as a Visionary Circle Member of the X-Prize Foundation. Ms. Daryabari was awarded Alumni of the Year at Golden Gate University in 2008.
Diane Tober, Exec. Director
Diane Tober holds a doctorate in medical anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. She has had an interest in Iranian culture for over twenty years, and specialized in Iran and the Middle East throughout her graduate training. She has traveled to Iran for research several times since 2001, and lived in Isfahan, Iran with her two sons for six months in 2002. During this time she conducted research on family planning among low-income Iranians and Afghan refugees. Dr. Tober has devoted most of her career to concerns surrounding women's health, particularly in Muslim settings.
She has been the recipient of several grants for her research and for the development of her photographic essay exhibit, Iran and the Afghan Diaspora, 2001-2004, on display at the University of California, Berkeley Townsend Center for the Humanities from October 2004 until February of 2005. Additionally, she has published several articles on both her work in Iran and her work on the reproductive industry in the United States in major scholarly journals.
Dr. Tober recently co-edited a special volume on Islam, Health, and the Body: Science and Religion in the Muslim World, for a special edition of Body and Society, to be published by Sage Press. She also edited a special edition for the journal Iranian Studies, entitled: "Afghan Refugees and Returnees: Culture and Survival in the Face of War, Violence and Dislocation." Her book manuscript, A Path to Isfahan: Life in Iran with My Two Sons, is currently under consideration for a major university press.
Below is a list of her recent publications:
1. Tober, Diane. "My Body is Broken Like My Country": Identity, Nation, and Repatriation among Afghan Refugees in Iran. In Iranian Studies, 40(2) 2007. Guest Editor: Diane Tober.
2. Tober, Diane. Introduction: Afghan Refugees and Returnees. IN Iranian Studies, 40(2), 2007.
3. Tober, Diane (Guest Editor) Special Edition on Afghan Refugees and Returnees: Culture and Survival in the Face of War, Violence and Dislocation. Special edition for the journal Iranian Studies 40 (2): 2007. Taylor and Francis Press, April 2007.
4. Tober, Diane. Kidneys and Controversies in the Islamic Republic of Iran. IN Islam, Health and the Body: Science and Religion in the Muslim World. Special edition for Body and Society, Diane Tober and Debra Budiani, guest editors. Sage Press, Forthcoming, July 2007.
5. Tober, Diane and Debra Budiani. Introduction to Islam, Health and the Body: Science and Religion in the Muslim World. Special edition for Body and Society, Diane Tober and Debra Budiani, guest editors. Forthcoming, July 2007.
6. Tober, Diane. Afghan Refugee and Iranian Health Comparisons. IN Encyclopedia for Women in Islamic Cultures, Suad Joseph, editor. v.4:471-474:2007. Boston: Brill Press.
7. Tober, Diane, Mohammed Taghdisi and Mohammed Jalali. "Fewer Children, Better Life," or "As Many as God Wants?": Perceptions and Practices of Family Planning among Low-income Iranians and Afghan Refugees in Iran." C. Sargent and M. Inhorn, guest editors. IN Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 20(1):50-71:2006.
8. Tober, Diane. "Children in the Field and the Methodological Challenges of Research in Iran." IN Iranian Studies, Mary Hegland, and Erika Loeffler-Friedl, editors. 37:4:643-658:2004.
