In September 2002, Nikoo Paydar (LA '04) had quite an answer for the perennial question, "What did you do last summer?"
Short answer: she took a two-month trip to Iran, her birth country, funded by the then-UCCPS Omidyar Scholar Community Project Fund and a Massachusetts Campus Compact Social Awareness grant.
Longer answer: based on a conversation group she conducted with nine Iranian women and the photographs she took of day-to-day life and culture in Iran, Paydar "began a dialogue about perceptions and tried to get people to think closer to the realities of lifestyle and culture in both America and Iran."
"For so many people, the only images they think of when they think 'Iran' are women wearing chador (literally 'tent'), black dresses that conceal the body, and people saying 'Death to America,' or religious figures," said Paydar via e-mail, who majored in art history at Tufts and whose father is Iranian and mother is American.
In order to convey the fullness of Iranian culture to a broad audience, Paydar created a photo essay that was displayed in Tufts' Aidekman Arts Center in fall 2002, and later at the University of London's School for Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and the University of Texas, Austin.
"There are no official diplomatic relations between American and Iran, and media coverage of Iran is very limited," said Paydar, who lived in Iran with her parents until she turned two and they moved to Memphis, Tenn. "I wanted to show the diversity of the Iranian experience to an audience that might not otherwise have the opportunity to become aware of that diversity."
"The exhibit was more successful than I imagined," she said. "For me, the conversation group and exhibit were an opportunity to take my cross-cultural background and perspective and begin a dialogue about perceptions and try to get people to think closer to the realities of lifestyle and culture in both America and Iran."
In September 2003, with a similarly cross-cultural objective in mind, Paydar and then-Wellesley College student Narges Bajoghli officially founded Iranian Alliances Across Borders (IAAB), a non-partisan, non-profit organization that held its inaugural conference at Tufts and Wellesley focusing on Iranian diaspora in April, 2004 (the month before Paydar graduated).
"We're working on new ways of establishing connections between Iranians in their new diasporic communities and their root community," Paydar said.
The idea for the organization -- which was originally established as a student organization at Tufts and Wellesley -- first arose during the year Paydar and Bajoghli spent studying abroad in London.
"My friends and I spent a lot of time at [SOAS] attending lectures and events related to the Middle East and Iran in particular," said Paydar, who also founded the Tufts Persian Students Association as an undergraduate.
"One day, my friend Narges and I had a conversation about how we appreciated that we have the opportunity to engage in this sort of thing in London, and that we wanted to create the same thing in Boston," she said.
The two girls organized a conference on the subject of Iranian diaspora because "it's an issue that we felt like talking about -- an issue that was close to home," Paydar said.
Since graduating last May, Paydar has been working with IAAB on fostering further discussion of that issue.
Though Paydar's major at Tufts may not initially seem like a linear precursor to her current career, she said her background in art history has enhanced her ability to promote such dialogue.
"Art history for me is a subject that teaches you to look at images and think of the politics, the religion, the cultural influences behind that image's production ... and also how those things influence the way the piece is received," Paydar said. "Having an academic background that trains a person to look at situations and try to understand the forces behind it and influencing it ... it makes experiencing other cultures have greater depth."
Though Paydar chose to study art history at Tufts, she "was also always interested in public service and civic engagement -- that's what led me to become involved in Omidyar Scholars," she said. "In college, through Omidyar Scholars, my service interests drew more and more on my own skills and interests -- I was finding new ways to build community."
For Paydar, IAAB is a natural extension of that community-building experience. It's also an ever-evolving one.
"The challenge is to stay relevant," Paydar said. "We want to provide a space for an open and productive dialogue that includes as many voices as possible. IAAB is fortunate in that we address issues of the Iranian diaspora; that is, issues that we have in common rather than issues that divide us."
