Team

Durre Shehwar Nabi, devoted wife, mother, daughter, sister and loving friend, passed away at home in New York City on November 23, 2023, following a seven-year battle with breast cancer. She was 50 years old. Durre is survived by her husband, Bilal Rashid, and their daughter, Hana (17), and son, Faiz (14); her parents, Shamshad and Kausar, of Karachi, Pakistan; her brother, Usman, his wife, Lauren, and their sons, Aiden and Noah, of Los Angeles, California; her trusted Nanny Madelene; and her cherished dog Louis.

In her college application essay Durre described her childhood in Saudi Arabia, where she loved the “exotic communal zoo” of expatriate life. She felt “blessed by the global environment of the expatriate community in the Gulf” and considered herself “to be a patriotic citizen of the world at large”. She relished “aspects of foreign religions, cultures, and ideas” and found herself “addicted to the freshness, vividness, uniqueness of anything peculiar”. In this essay she shared her definition of ‘Home’: “the loveliness of Robert Frost’s New England woods; the taste of California oranges; a brassy saxophone playing outside a gloomy New York café” – and declared “I crave a pilgrimage of it all”.

Three decades after she wrote this essay, the hundreds of heartbroken attendees at her funeral prayers at the Islamic Cultural Center in New York and her burial site at Hillside Cemetery in Cortlandt Manor reflected the beautiful pilgrimage that was Durre’s life. The mourners were the exact communal zoo she lovingly described in her essay, with members of numerous religions, nationalities, age groups, ethnicities, and professional backgrounds. She had met this incredible group of people as she immersed herself in academics, law, business and parenthood in Karachi, Jeddah, Boston, Washington DC, and New York City – the ultimate menagerie where she lived half her life. Her greatest achievement was to earn the love, loyalty, and respect of so many people.

In the outpouring of condolence messages after her passing, she was described as a “trailblazer” with a “rare combination of genius and humility”. Friends referenced her academic excellence: she broke national academic records at high school in Pakistan and subsequently attended Harvard College, Georgetown University Law Center, and Columbia Business School.

But the vast majority of friends and family remembered her for something even more special than her academic and professional accomplishments: her impeccable character. Friends recalled her “warmth and kindness”, her “signature grace, humility, love, no judgement”, her “empathy and sense of restraint”, and her “infectious smile”. Numerous friends remarked that she was a “ray of light” with a unique sincerity and willingness to help people from all walks of life; one friend recalled that he was “blown away by the energy she invested in me” when he faced a challenge. Despite her own significant health issues, Durre had endless energy for helping others, and her friends and family were blessed by her selfless dedication, expansive love, and thoughtful counsel.

She was also remembered for her incredible poise and strength through her seven-year battle with cancer. One doctor remarked that Durre had shown more grace and dignity in impossible circumstances than most healthy people he knew. Friends recalled how Durre would deflect conversations away from her illness, showing more interest in talking about her friends’ lives, and she often downplayed the severity of her illness to ease the emotional burden on others. Durre fought against breast cancer with inspiring and ceaseless ferocity to the end. She immersed herself in learning about the most technical and complex medical aspects of cancer and sought out the best doctors in the nation. Her intense efforts to educate herself and challenge her doctors to fine-tune her treatments likely added several precious years to her life; these extra years were especially important in her capacity as a mother to two beautiful children who were in the formative years of their lives. In a moving tribute to Durre, her oncologist described her as among the “group of patients that are dearest to me” and that the “memories of [her] courage, determination, and endurance inspire us in the lab and clinic to continue to try to find a solution – they give sense to our lives as investigators”.

Durre met her husband, Bilal, through mutual friends. They married in 2003 and were due to celebrate their twentieth wedding anniversary in December of this year. The couple welcomed two children, Hana and Faiz, into their lives who immediately became the center of the couple’s world, and Durre passionately dedicated herself to motherhood. Hana and Faiz are her gift to the world; while she was proud of their academic and athletic accomplishments, she absolutely glowed when speaking of their kindness and warmth to others.

Durre was an active parent at Resurrection Episcopal Day School and The Dalton School. She was a member of the Board of Trustees of Dalton and served on the Board’s Committee on Governance & Trustees, the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee and the Faculty & Staff Life Committee. Throughout her life, Durre remained passionate about providing girls in Pakistan the educational opportunities her loving parents gave to her. Durre served as a Board Member of both Iqra Fund, which establishes schools for girls in the remote, mountainous regions of Northern Pakistan, and The Citizens Foundation, which operates over 1,900 schools throughout Pakistan. Durre also worked as a volunteer attorney at Legal Services NYC to assist low-income clients on immigration matters.

Durre Shehwar, whose name means “pearl fit for a King” in Urdu, will be dearly missed but her incredible legacy and character will forever live on in the hearts of her family and friends.

Rahat Azfar is a clinical epidemiologist and board-certified dermatologist practicing in Seattle. She attended medical school at Rutgers,the State University of New Jersey, and also earned a Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania. Recipient of the prestigious Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health and the American Skin Association, Rahat also has experience as lead investigator and project coordinator in multinational collaborations-design, managing and analyzing large databases, as well as managing international programs and logistics.

Rahat joined the Iqra Fund Board in July 2016, and in 2018 she visited several of Iqra Fund’s partner communities in Baltistan. She has a strong interest in the socioeconomic factors that influence public health and has worked as a researcher, teacher, volunteer and clinician in resource-poor areas within the U.S., Africa and the Middle East.

She brings an analytically-based scientific and public health perspective to the Iqra Fund team. As a Pakistani American woman and a firm believer in the power of education in improving communities, she is inspired by Iqra Fund's sustainable, community-oriented approach.

Rabia Iqbal is co-founder and managing partner of Nural Capital, a web3 investing platform.  Prior to founding Nural Capital, Rabia held roles at Mubadala Capital, Coatue Management and Morgan Stanley. Active in the Pakistani diaspora community, especially the young professional community in New York City, she is very involved with nonprofit organizations that give back to Pakistan. She is particularly interested in mentorship, education and empowering young women.

While visiting several of Iqra Fund’s partner communities in Baltistan in 2018, Rabia was inspired by our students’ dreams and aspirations. A board member since 2017, she is driven to make Iqra Fund a nationally-known and respected organization in Pakistan.

Rabia holds a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University. She lives in Manhattan with her husband and two daughters.

Natasha Kazmi has spent 15 years in various roles in the financial services industry, ranging from corporate restructurings to asset management, and has worked in Pakistan, Indonesia and the U.S.

Natasha earned both a bachelor’s and master’s in Business Administration from the University of Karachi, and is also a board member at West Side Montessori School in New York City, where she lives with her husband and two children.

She believes in the transformational power of education that is blind to wealth and circumstance.

Ana Bjelogrlic Canning served as Iqra Fund’s Chief Strategy Officer in 2023 and continues to serve as an Advisor. She has partnered with Iqra Fund since 2021 to develop  strategic plans, with a specific focus on stewarding growth, deepening impact, and establishing and managing strategic partnerships with donors, programmatic partners and the Board of Directors.

She brings to the organization 18+ years of experience in project management and nonprofit fundraising, strategy and program design and implementation. Prior to joining Iqra Fund, she worked as a consultant and/or employee for organizations large and small including Save the Children, Malala Fund, VOW for Girls, and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. She is also the creator and CEO of the Jigsaw Collective DC – a referral-only community of independent contractors and freelance experts serving the nonprofit sector.

Ana has worked on a variety of issue areas throughout her career and is deeply passionate about global development and the empowerment of women and youth. She is driven and  inspired by people and organizations that bring bold ideas to life.

Ana studied English and Communications at the University of Maryland and International Affairs at George Washington University in Washington DC. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband and three young sons.

Former Chief Operating Officer of Forbes Inc., Tim Forbes joined Iqra Fund’s team of founding board members in 2012. Tim brings expertise in business and nonprofits, small and large, as well as travel and business experience in Pakistan, starting in the 1970s when he drove his motorcycle from Karachi, on the southernmost tip of Pakistan, to Khunjarab Pass on its northern border.  

A friendship with our co-founder, Doug Chabot, as well as a connection to the communities we serve in Pakistan, drew him to Iqra Fund. Today Tim advises the organization on partnerships and major donor relations.

Anne Rockhold is the Chief Finance Officer at Accel Partners, one of the most successful venture capital and private equity firms in Silicon Valley. She is passionate about Iqra Fund’s mission because wants more women and girls to have opportunities to lead, and she recognizes the importance of education in achieving that.

A member of Iqra Fund’s advisory board since 2014, Anne serves on Iqra Fund’s financial and audit committees.

Jennifer Sweeney has worked as general counsel for several start-up companies, practiced corporate law for Weil, Gotshal & Manges, and worked in private equity and investment banking.

She joined the Iqra Fund board in 2013, and enjoys applying her experience working with early-stage growth enterprises and her passion for empowerment through education to Iqra Fund’s work.

Jennifer holds a JD from Harvard Law School and Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame. She also serves on the board of Meritus College Fund, a nonprofit that empowers low-income San Francisco youth to earn college degrees, as well as on the Architecture Construction Engineering board, a nonprofit providing teacher and administrator training and strategic professional services to under-resourced schools. She lives with her family in the San Francisco Bay Area.

One of our first staff members, Pervez Sajjad joined Iqra Fund in 2011 as a volunteer, and became our director of operations in mid-2012, bringing a passion for girls education and community development, as well as experience in both public and nonprofit organizations.

Pervez serves the organization in a key leadership role, overseeing our Pakistan-based operations, finances, organizational development, strategic partnerships and in-country fundraising strategy.

He represents Iqra Fund at external meetings and leads the process of building, maintaining and strengthening relationships with stakeholders including the federal, provincial and district governments, private donors, NGOs and communities. He also assists the CEO and board in policy making and maintaining our international nonprofit status in Pakistan.

Prior to joining Iqra Fund, he worked at the Pakistan Red Crescent Society’s national headquarters as an IT management specialist, and at Netsolace, Ovex Technologies and Endpoint Technologies as a Technical Support Engineer. He has volunteered for local community and student-based organizations in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Pervez has a master's in Project Management from SZABIST University and a postgraduate degree in Computer Sciences and Management from Iqra University.

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Deidre Combs has written three books on resolving conflict and overcoming challenges through integration of common wisdom from the world’s lasting cultural traditions with systems theory and brain research. As a management consultant, coach, mediator and professor, she provides leadership and conflict strategies to corporate, government and NGO clients including Aveda Corporation, the US Forest Service, US Postal Service, IBM and Landmine Survivors Network.

Deidre is a core instructor in Montana State University’s Leadership Fellows Certificate Program, and also teaches leadership skills to State Department-selected student and professional leaders from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Eurasia, Latin America and Pakistan’s FATA region. Previously, she spent nine years with IBM as a software development project manager and vendor liaison specializing in healthcare solutions. She also worked as marketing director for the electronic medical record provider SolCom Incorporated, leading its corporate rebranding effort.

Deidre holds a bachelor’s in Mathematics and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, a master’s in Information Systems Technology from George Washington University, and a doctorate focused on world religions from UCS/Naropa University.

As one of our founding board members, she has been integral for our strategic planning. This includes helping us answer the big questions of “what’s next?” for our students after completing their education.

Andleeb Dawood is the founder and owner of Saffron Table, a contemporary south Asian restaurant in Bozeman. Formerly an investment banker specializing in financing large building and construction projects for rural hospitals nationwide, she lent her business startup savvy to our founding board.

Part of the Iqra Fund board since 2012, Andleeb has helped us build a sustainable funding platform that is transparent and accountable to both the organization’s donors and to the communities that Iqra Fund serves. She is passionate about women’s empowerment through education.

Nadia is a founding board member of Iqra Fund. She has also managed the local operation of Iqra in Pakistan.

Nadia has worked with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank as an Advisor to the Government of Pakistan on trade and investment agreements. Her work is focused on enhancing economic ties with regional countries, including adversarial neighbors with the aim to create regional stability. She has advised the government on free trade negotiations with China, India, Iran, Turkey and other trading partners. Nadia has also served as Pakistan’ Trade and Investment Counsellor in Prague where she was a part of the negotiation team which successfully negotiated Pakistan’s access to European Union’s scheme of Generalized System of Preferences.

Nadia holds a Master in Public Administration with a concentration in Development Economics from Harvard University. Nadia also holds a Master from Duke University. While at Harvard, Nadia served as the President of Pakistan Students Group and the Co-chair of South Asia Engagement Forum.

Nadia is a social and political activist. She strongly believes in expanding the space for women’s participation in economic and political spheres. She is committed to the girls education in remote and conservative tribal areas of Pakistan where Iqra is based.

Tanya Rosen is as a conservationist with wildlife nonprofit organizations in Central Asia and Pakistan. Working with the Baltistan Wildlife Conservation and Development Organization - Project Snow Leopard, and others, and as a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature Cat Specialist Group, she assists local communities coexist with large carnivores.

While doing conservation work in northern tribal Pakistan prior to Iqra Fund’s existence, Tanya paid out of her own pocket for girls to attend school. And as a founding Iqra Fund board member, her experience with the people and culture was integral to helping us get established in the region.

Previously, she spent seven years practicing international law in Europe and the US and earned degrees in science and international law from Milano, Yale, Harvard and Bard. She has also lent her law acumen to our leadership.

Jason is the Chief Advancement Officer for the Bozeman Deaconess Hospital Foundation. Prior to that, he led global corporate communications for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva, Switzerland; was head of communications in the Red Cross’s Asia Pacific zone; and served as CEO for large American Red Cross chapters in Texas and California. He has also worked as the Chief Relations Officer for the Montana State University Alumni Foundation.

Jason is a graduate of the DiploFoundation’s International Humanitarian Diplomacy program and has degrees in Political Science and English from MSU. An Iqra Fund board member since 2014, Jason brings a passion for education and international development, and an entrepreneurial approach to organizational planning, growth, and communications.

An Iqra Fund staffer from 2013 to 2018, Sabeena Zehra worked closely with our scholarship students and teachers. She also supported new teacher hiring and training, and was responsible for gathering data on our programs.

Sabeena has depth of education programming experience, having worked previously as a science and phonetics teacher at Ashraf Public School in Skardu, Pakistan, and a professional social worker for the Aga Khan Rural Support Program. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Education from Karakoram University and completed her master’s in Sociology from AIOU Islamabad with Iqra Fund support.

Passionate about girls’ education and its potential to empower women and foster gender equality, Sabeena dreams one day all girls will be educated, empowered and treated equally. “Development can only be possible when we eliminate discrimination between men and women and they strive to work together,” she says. She wants to see girls working in fields including engineering, teaching and medicine.

Amna Zafar has an academic background in social sciences and experience working in the development sector with national NGOs in Pakistan. She holds a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Social Sciences from SZABIST University.

Amna joined Iqra Fund in 2016, bringing a passion for eradicating the education crisis in Pakistan and for promoting women’s empowerment. She works closely with our country director and CEO to support our grant writing, communications and fundraising.

Andrea Bennett was the owner and founder of Meridian Ltd. in Bozeman, Montana, and CEO and founder of Boutique Franchise Systems, Inc.

Traveling the world with extended visits in Asia including Mongolia, India, Nepal and Bhutan, Andi saw firsthand the hardships many impoverished girls and women face. She was passionate about increasing education and health care opportunities for this population, and brought to Iqra Fund her skills as a businesswoman, her love for helping others, and a desire to make the organization successful, transparent and financially sustainable.

In her honor and with support from her family and friends, Iqra Fund is working to build Andi's dream project: a high school designed to help Pakistani girls realize their entrepreneurial and leadership potential.