Weaving a community

Sima Vaghti still lives the American dream, though these mornings she often wakes up crying.

Not many people are buying hand-tied Persian rugs in this bad economy, so Vaghti (vagh-TEE) is sadly preparing to close her retail store in Santa Rosa. With its classic Persian books and motif and steaming traditional tea, her shop has existed also as an inviting gem of Iranian culture at Second Street and Montgomery Drive.

The Rugs of Persia store has been even more than that for Vaghti, who came to America from Iran at 16, earned a Ph.D in educational leadership and taught at several universities. Through the seven years her shop was profitable, she donated rugs and money to Roseland University Prep, Southwest Community Health Center, KRCB public television in Rohnert Park, a teen-run nutrition program for critically ill Sonoma County people and other local human-service causes.

“I tried very hard not to come to this point and have a liquidation sale,” said Vaghti, gracious and eloquent at 55. Without her shop, she said through tears, “I won’t be able to do what I like to do for community.”

Larry Robinson, Sebastopol city councilman and community activist, is among the admirers of the struggling shop who appreciates even more what its proprietor has given back to Sonoma County.

“She’s a wonderful, generous lady,” Robinson said. He and Vaghti met in Sebastopol where she operated her enterprise for five years before moving it to Santa Rosa. The two discovered a shared passion for the works of the internationally acclaimed Persian poet Rumi.

For the past eight Februaries, Robinson and Vaghti and Graton therapist Catherine Sharp have produced Rumi’s Caravan in Sebastopol. The night of poetry and exotic food has raised money for KRCB and the Ceres Community Project, an avenue for west county teens to provide wholesome, natural meals to families fighting cancer and other catastrophic illnesses.

Each year, Vaghti has prepared, by herself and at her own expense, a Persian feast for the 300 or more people who attend Rumi’s Caravan.

“Every year, I try to convince Sima to let someone else pay for it,” Robinson said. “This next year, we’ll probably do that.”

Susan Moore, who created the No Name Women’s Group and has rallied community support for Roseland University Prep and other causes, counts Vaghti among her angels.

“Lord knows, she has given a lot to this community. She’s one of the most generous persons I’ve ever met,” Moore said.

As heartbroken as Vaghti is to be losing her shop, and thus her platform for giving to her community, she has too much life experience and too much faith in America to be without hope.

“This really is the land of opportunity,” she said. A U.S. citizen since 1984, she proudly recounted that both of her younger brothers earned doctoral degrees in America, same as she.

Her daughter, Orchid, is in her final year of law school at Empire College, and her son, Ary, is studying chemical engineering at the University of California at Irvine.

When Vaghti came to the United States from Iran as a teenager, she spoke two emergency words of English — “help” and “policeman.” Following the lead of her late mother, a pioneer among the first Iranian women to receive advanced education and then teach Iranian girls, Vaghti studied at Southern Illinois University and the University of Chicago.

For nearly 20 years she taught teachers in Texas and Southern California. She was last in Iran 10 years ago and she doesn’t imagine making another visit until change replaces the current regime that’s striking hard against protests of the June election that kept President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power.

“That is my land, this is my country,” Vaghti said. She expects that freedom will come to Iran, but that Ahmadinejad and his protectors will not leave power without first making “a sea of blood.”

The longtime educator came to Sonoma County in 2000 with her husband, Cyrus, who’s in medical supply sales. The following year she decided to start a new career from her lifelong passion for the durable art of Persian rugs.

Though the economy is forcing her to prepare to close her shop, Vaghti said she’ll continue to give what she can while watching for new opportunities. She figures she might teach again, or maybe the economy will rebound and she can find a space for a smaller rug shop.

Another entrepreneurial thought occurred to her. “I’m also a very good cook,” she said.