Afghan cafe bridging cultures
NAJIBEH Jafari and her family left Afghanistan for their safety and arrived in Tasmania as refugees 14 years ago.
Now Ms Jafari is breaking down cultural barriers in her new role as cultural officer at Afghan Zafira Fine Foods cafe in Moonah, which employs and trains refugees from Afghanistan.
The cafe has launched its Afghan cultural tours offering, which Ms Jafari will run as cultural officer.
“We have a community down here and it’s nice for people to know about us,” she said. “We are very gentle and calm people.
“Everyone thinks we are terrorists, because we lived in a country like [Afghanistan], but we are not.”
Ms Jafari said the cultural exchange worked two ways and that everyone was welcome.
“People can learn about us and we can learn about them as well, so it’s two ways,” she said.