‘Dream Come True’, Refugee Beats Odds & Opens Afghan Cafe in Iran

Serving freshly plunged French coffee, this cafe is becoming a local haunt for Afghans and Iranians. It is the brainchild of 21-year-old Afghan refugee Fatemeh Jafari and is the first Afghan cafe in Tehran.

(Photo: AP)

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Down a marble staircase, aromatic of freshly made French coffee is Telma Cafe. It has become the local haunt of Afghans and Iranians. The brainchild of 21-year-old Afghan refugee Fatemeh Jafari, it is the first Afghan cafe in Tehran. “We always dreamed of owning our own cafe and wanted to make it come true someday,” says Jafari.

“One day, when my friend, Hamed Azar, and I were sitting in a cafe, we became serious in pursuing this dream and said, ‘Let’s do it!’ We wanted to do something that did not exist until then and wanted to be the first to do it.’

Fatemeh Jafari, Cafe Owner

Jafari, a law student at Azad University, and her friend Hamed Azar, another Afghan who studies Engineering, opened the cafe in Tehran's bustling Ferdowsi neighbourhood near its old downtown.

“We did some research and found out there was no Afghan cafe in Tehran and decided to launch the business.”

Fatemeh Jafari, Owner

They worked hard to receive a permit from government authorities, a daunting task given Iran's Labor Ministry disallows Afghans from running cafes.

They asked money from their parents and used their own cash to open the business.

They couldn't rely on a bank loan as Iranian banks do not give loans to foreigners, even those with Iranian residency permits.

More than three million Afghans – including as many as two million who entered without legal permission – live in the Islamic Republic, according to United Nations estimates.

Even those who live legally in Iran face challenges in finding work, and many take jobs as labourers for cash under the table.

“People get surprised when they see our cafe for the first time. Before people started to know us, they thought we were Chinese, Japanese or Korean. As soon as they knew we were Afghans, they would be astounded and said they would come back again for sure,” Jafari explains.

“They asked us if we had an Afghan menu too and their enthusiasm made us want to include Afghan cuisine on our menu much sooner than we had planned.”

Cafe culture remains widely popular in Iran, especially amongst students and young people in university neighbourhoods.

An Iranian barista even has offered to help Jafari learn new techniques.