Join Georges River Council as we celebrate Refugee Week by hearing a talk from an Ambassador of the Refugee Council of Australia, Shahri Rafi to speak on the theme of “Finding Freedom."

Refugee Week is Australia’s peak annual activity to promote greater awareness of refugees, the issues they face, and the contributions refugees make to the Australian community. It provides an opportunity to celebrate the wonderful ways in which people from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds enrich their new communities. Refugee Week is a chance for ordinary people to welcome, thank and celebrate their neighbours who have come seeking safety.

We are honoured to be joined by Shahri Rafi, an Ambassador of the Refugee Council of Australia.

Listen to Shari’s powerful story and hear her discuss what freedom means to her, and how she found it in Australia. This is an opportunity to hear how we can support refugees and celebrate the resilience that makes up parts of our wider community.

About our speaker:

During the Afghan Civil War in the early 1990’s, Shari’s family was internally displaced to different provinces to stay alive. They eventually migrated to Pakistan to stay alive, where Shari completed primary and high school. Their family returned to Afghanistan with hope after 9/11 and the collapse of the Taliban regime in 2002. However, this hope for peace was faced with security challenges due to the Taliban’s ongoing attacks.

Shahri completed her undergraduate Law and Political Science degree from Kabul University in 2018 and was awarded a scholarship to complete her Master's at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS.). Shahri returned to Afghanistan after completing her degree to participate in the country’s reconstruction process and worked for a law firm while in Kabul. However, due to the security crisis after the international’s troops early withdrawal in 2014, Shahri returned to Sydney and sought protection in Australia.

After completing her LLM degree, Shahri continued her legal education and completed another law degree, Juris Doctor at UTS which qualified her to get admitted as a lawyer at the Supreme Court of NSW. Shahri currently runs her own law firm and has worked as solicitor in Sydney for more than 10 years.

Cost: Free

Age: All ages

Light refreshments will be served.

Accessibility Information:

Georges River Libraries is committed to providing inclusive library services and programs. Please email [email protected] or note down your requirements or support needs in your event registration.   

Please note: the venue is accessible for people using wheelchairs and other mobility aids.

Terms and conditions:

• For participants under the age of 16, parents and/or guardians of children must remain in the library for the duration of the program.  
• If you arrive more than 10 minutes after the advertised start time and there are people in the standby queue, your ticket may be allocated to the standby queue  
• If you are unable to attend, please cancel your registration at least 3 hours prior to the event. As Library Programs have limited spaces and repeated failure to notify staff of cancellations, bookings may be refused in the future.