Aaron Gafari popped into a Denver consignment shop, picked up his family’s unsold wool Afghan rug and tucked it protectively under his arm. The shop owner – who had known Gafari since he was a toddler – asked him what he would do now that he had graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder, with a perfect GPA in his political science and philosophy majors.
“I plan to start law school at the University of Virginia in the fall, focusing on international law,” Gafari responded with a grin.
“Ah, we always knew that was going to happen,” the shop owner responded, smiling. “You’re a smart guy like your father. We always knew you’d get where you wanted to go.”
With that, Gafari hopped in his car and pointed it toward another shop across town for the last errand he needed to run to wind down his family’s 20-plus-year-old Afghan rug business. Two months later, he programmed his GPS to take him to Charlottesville, the next stop on his journey from first-generation American to first-generation lawyer.
His family’s journey started in 1979, when a Soviet-backed Communist regime took over Afghanistan. At the time, his father, Robert, was a privileged Afghan teenager visiting Poland. As the regime began executing members of Afghanistan’s educated and ruling class, Robert’s parents told him he would have to find his way from Poland to somewhere else. Home was no longer an option.
“Returning would have meant certain death for my father, based on his family’s political background,” Gafari said.
His father walked and hitchhiked through the Eastern bloc to find his way to democracy in West Germany. By the end of 1979, the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan, civil society collapsed and the resulting bloodshed and discord continued for 43 years and counting.
Robert immigrated to the United States and New York City, where he drove taxis and buses, managed convenience stores and sold Afghan rugs to make ends meet.
By the time the United States invaded Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, Robert had married Faith, another Afghan immigrant, and built a comfortable life owning a thriving Afghan rug showroom in Denver.
“Growing up in the post-9/11 world, all I’ve ever known was the U.S. being at war with Afghanistan,” said Gafari, who was barely a year old when the Twin Towers fell. “My family is extremely pro-American, but it was heartbreaking to see the circumstances in which people were living.”
The Gafaris’ rug business partnered with an organization in Afghanistan that pays women to hand-weave the rugs. When they traveled in-country, they would deliver care packages and build small libraries, Gafari said. After the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban destroyed almost all of the libraries.
Most of Gafari’s youth was spent in the rug showroom, first crawling on the wares, and then selling them and helping run the business. But Gafari remembers the sense of impending doom as globalization and e-commerce led the assault on locally owned retailers.
“We had customers who would come in and say they’ve switched to rugs that are machine-made reproductions and 100 times cheaper,” Gafari said. “Some still appreciate knowing they’re getting a rug that’s handmade, but the average consumer just wants something that’s more affordable.”
When the store closed its doors in 2017, Gafari looked at his father and saw for the first time an immigrant who didn’t know which way to turn. Robert had no formal education, few technological skills and no résumé.
“My dad didn’t have any degrees; my mom didn’t have any degrees, so where do you go from there?” Gafari said.
Still in high school himself, Gafari helped wind down the business and prepped his father for a GED exam and job search while figuring out his own college and financial aid applications. By the time Gafari started his freshman year at University of Colorado, Boulder, his father had settled into a job as a deputy at the local jail. But Gafari realized he didn’t know how to plot his own course through college and on to his dream of attending law school.
He got involved with the school’s Conference on World Affairs, which deepened his interest in, and knowledge of, global issues, and allowed him to contribute his knowledge of the Middle East. He also joined the Phi Alpha Delta pre-law club, through which he met a pre-law career adviser, Tony Bastone, who had previously served more than three decades as a law school career development dean.
“He took me under his wing, showed me all the ropes, and he was friends with [UVA Law Admissions] Dean Natalie Blazer, so he knew that UVA is a great institution for international law,” Gafari said. “He was there for me the whole way, from step one to getting accepted to UVA.”
The teen who had once led a man through the process of building a new life was now a man being shown the once-invisible path before him.
“Dean Bastone and my dad both shepherded me through the process. Dean Bastone helped me with the actual procedures. And although my dad didn’t know the exact process, he walked me through what he thought were the best decisions,” Gafari said “It was a very full-circle moment for me, to actually complete undergrad and be accepted to UVA Law.”
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December 24, 2024
