Fati, along with her sisters Parinaz ’81 and Ameneh ’84, enrolled at The Harley School. Having attended an international school in Iran, Fati was already familiar with American culture and students, but she soon realized that living in the US was very different from studying alongside Americans back home. “Most people were very welcoming,” she recalls, “but I didn’t look like anyone else and there were many aspects of life in the US that were puzzling or foreign to me.”
Even so, she found warmth and connection through her teachers. She remembers Dexter Lewis (Headmaster 1977-82), who had taught at an international school in Germany and even knew her former headmaster. She also fondly recalls Alan Sparrow (Middle School, 1972-80, Head of Middle School, 1980-84), then Head of Middle School, who was a gifted teacher. But her parents “told him to give more homework,” she laughs, “which he announced to his class. Not all the students were happy about that!”
What was meant to be a temporary stay turned into a permanent life change. When the Iranian Revolution began in 1979, her family decided not to return home. Friends and relatives began to leave the country, many of them stopping in Rochester to visit the Ziai family and recount the upheaval back home. The hostage crisis was also a difficult period, when a lot of anti-Iranian sentiment arose in the US. At the time, few of her classmates “understood or were that interested in what was happening in Iran.” But now, when we reconnect, many of them ask me about that time—they just didn’t know. We were all so young.” Although she had longed to return to Iran, Fati realized how fortunate they were to have stayed and to have Harley as a community.
Fati went on to attend Brown University and later earned her law degree from Harvard Law School. Today, she serves as Director of Coordination for the Departments of Peace Operations, Political and Peacebuilding Affairs at the United Nations, working at the heart of global diplomacy and conflict resolution.
Looking back, Fati credits Harley with giving her a solid education and a place where she was able to develop some lifelong friendships (as you can see above with her classmate Julie Lawrence ’82 at the recent New York City event).
