The Founding CEO of the Malala Fund Gets Married
When Shiza Shahid and Amir Tehrani were planning their wedding, one thing was clear: They wanted to honor their respective heritages. Shiza, the founding CEO of the Malala Fund (created to fight for girls’ education after the young Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban) and founder of Now Ventures (a seed fund that invests in mission-driven startups), is from Islamabad. Amir, founder of Legacy Angel Ventures and a Los Angeles Entrepreneur in Residence, is Persian and has family in Palos Verdes. The solution? Two weddings, one in each place.
The Pakistani celebration came first, over three days in April 2016. For the 80 guests from around the country the main event was a party at Sky School, an orphanage run by Shiza’s mother. “I wanted to make sure these kids, who call my mother Mom, were included in the celebration,” Shiza says of the 111 boys who prepared dances for the newlyweds. “They got to be the stars of the show.”
Then, in September, the couple invited 200 guests, including Malala - a Nobel Prize laureate who was recently named the youngest ever UN Messenger of Peace - to La Venta Inn in Palos Verdes for a Persian ceremony that featured such customs as the sofreh, an ornate spread of various symbolic elements: honey to represent the sweetness of marriage, almonds for health, and a book of Rumi’s poetry.
“In the U.S., other cultures get misunderstood because you only see them in the context of terrorism,” Shiza says. “Getting to the root of the traditions that make our cultures full of love, family, and kindness - that was important.” «
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