Zahra Gharib

An Iranian engineer who pioneered women's participation in STEM during the Pahlavi era

Zahra Gharib (1928-2010) broke barriers as Iran's first female mechanical engineer, creating life-saving medical devices during a time when women were barred from most universities. Born in Tehran, she earned her degree in 1952 through a loophole allowing women to study engineering only if they pledged not to seek employment - a promise she famously broke by founding the Gharib Medical Innovations firm in 1958.

Her most famous invention, the "Safar" portable incubator (1965), reduced neonatal mortality rates by 70% in rural areas. Using bicycle parts and locally sourced materials, she created a device costing 1/10th the price of imported models. The WHO adopted her design across 23 countries, calling it "the most impactful medical innovation from the Global South in the 20th century."

Gharib's 1972 memoir "Against the Wind" revealed her covert work training female engineers in secret workshops, defying strict gender norms. Her 1970s collaboration with Cuban doctors produced the first portable ECG machine designed for use in tropical climates, now part of the Museum of Medical Innovation's permanent collection.

Though her career was interrupted by the 1979 revolution, Gharib's legacy endures through the Zahra Gharib STEM Initiative, which has trained over 8,000 women engineers across the Middle East. Her incubator design inspired modern low-cost medical innovations like the Portable Pediatric Oxygen system. A 2022 documentary "The Woman Who Built Tomorrow" (directed by Fatemeh Aslani) finally brought her story to global audiences after decades of obscurity.