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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-05-30 Daily Xml
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Playford Electorate

Mr FULBROOK (Playford) (15:38): I rise to pay tribute and share the story of Parafield Gardens local Ellie Harati. A love of community flows through her veins and, while involved in many projects, Ellie is synonymous for running the Parafield Gardens Neighbourhood Facebook page.

The story of her past is fascinating and one I feel should be shared with the greater SA community. Key to this is the origin of her grandfather. While Iranian, he was a member of the royal family of Afghanistan and they share their surname with Harati, a city in the same country.

As a young boy, his family were exiled to Iran and over time he became a pharmacist, working with Bayer and owning his own company in Tehran. Following the 1978 revolution in Iran, this was confiscated, spelling the start of extreme persecution her family would endure. The theocratic regime that followed would commit countless atrocities on its people, carrying out the largest massacre in its history with the delusional intent of purifying society of non-Islamic elements.

It is hard to find words to describe what her late uncle endured. Working as a university lecturer, he was imprisoned and for five years lined up with 10 other men, with the fulfilled promise of two being executed. This happened daily and somehow he walked away with his life, albeit physically and mentally frail in every sense.

Her father, although a successful aviation project manager, soon lost his job and his family lived under continuous surveillance. As war waged against Iraq, Ellie recalls the bombing of Tehran. As school students, they would be hidden in tunnels as bombs fell. These were not only dark but cramped, with poor airflow and the fear of not knowing what was happening to loved ones on the surface.

With the government continually chasing her father's family, they decided to leave Iran and settle as refugees in Switzerland. While they had always lived in a nice house, life in a refugee camp was confronting. Surrounded by desperation, the family chose to turn back, deciding the resettlement process was too painful, with suicides happening in front of them on an all too frequent basis.

Upon returning, the war did not get any better, and everyone was encouraged to leave. This time, they joined other family members in Belgium, but this was also short lived, as Ellie's grandfather got sick, prompting the family to return home a second time. After she finished school, Ellie and her family moved to Dubai, living there for six years. Her mum and dad, Meh-ri and Far-had, continually encouraged her to live somewhere other than Iran, but her roots were so strong that she returned in the late 1990s.

With a university education, she found good work in the IT sector, but life was far from ideal. Ellie spoke of the morality police, of whom she ran afoul on multiple occasions. Set up to target women, they would pull victims in for questioning if their hair had fallen slightly out of their hijabs or if they were caught wearing objectionable clothing. A so-called violation would result in women being whisked into a van and taken to the station. They would be photographed and subjected to intensive questioning, with the risk of having their passports confiscated.

If this was not enough, citizens were made to walk past public hangings in the streets. These became so frequent Ellie described how desensitised people became to it. Ongoing workplace sexual harassment would eventually trigger her decision to leave. It was common to receive unwanted advances from men, with a tipping point being a refusal to be the sixth wife of a wealthy client. After years of resisting, she would leave the land and the family that she loved.

What happened next is a set of adventures migrants are all too familiar with. I could talk about the battle to find a job and accommodation, but I would never do it justice in a few short minutes. While times have been tough, Ellie found love in Adelaide, marrying Carlos, who arrived a month before her under a skilled visa. In 2017, they welcomed the arrival of their son, Ramon.

With 42 per cent of my electorate born overseas, there are many more stories like Ellie's that are confronting. We often take her deep smile, friendly nature and love of community at face value. In bringing Ellie's story to the chamber, I single it out to reinforce how the past often forges a deep commitment to our communities. Put simply, Ellie can do things now she could never do back in Iran. We should never lose sight of the many stories like this and, instead, realise how lucky we are that people like Ellie walk amongst us, possessing the drive to enrich the towns and the suburbs they now call home.

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