It started with a weekly Dua in each other's homes in 2003. Today it is a home, a cemetery, and over 180 financial members.
2003
Gathering since
2009
Registered
180+
Financial members
2003–2008
A few Afghan families in Adelaide began weekly Dua gatherings, moving from house to house, each family hosting in turn.
The group organised its first full Muharram program. Soon after, it fell apart. It had never been named, registered or given a structure.
2009–2011
The Society’s founding members, among them Syed Mehdi Kazmi, Said Qasim Kazimi, Syed Ather Agha, Rabab Haidar, the elder Syed Kallo and a young Syed, put their names and their own money behind it. The name Jafaria Islamic Society was proposed, and on 19 October 2009 it was formally registered with ASIC, with Syed Mehdi Kazmi as first President and the young Syed as first Secretary. Our first Muharram under our own name and our first Islamic weekend school followed that year.
This community stopped building on promises and started building on documents.
The Society was built as a platform for the whole Shia community, not one group’s private property. During that Muharram our Shia Indian brothers and sisters, the Khoja community, joined twelve paid members strong.
Our meetings have run in Dari, Urdu, Hindi and English ever since.
Held at Enfield Community Hall, with about forty members present. The first time the community sat as a constituted body, with accounts to present and decisions to take.
Enfield was our base in these years. The weekend school and indoor soccer for the youth both ran there. Most of our members and supporters were Hazara Afghan families.
Our Muharram program ran again, and with it the second Annual General Meeting, held during Muharram as was our practice then. The Society was flourishing: the membership register begun by the founding Secretary, and still held today, records more than 360 members and supporters with their addresses and phone numbers.
At that meeting the founding Secretary handed over every role and every record, publicly, from the stage, and left for Perth and his career.
2012–
The Society was registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission for the advancement of religion.
By now it had become genuinely multicultural. Afghan, Indian and Pakistani families were all part of it, exactly as the Society was built to be.
Behist e Zainab, at Pooraka. The Society bought the land. Not leased it, bought it. The first cemetery in South Australia dedicated to the Shia Ithna-Asheri community, held as a waqf.
It was not quickly won. The approvals took years of applications, conditions and hearings, and were not completed until 2020.
For the first time, a family here did not have to wonder where their mother, their father, their child would be laid to rest.
The Society bought commercial land at Pooraka, to establish a home for this community.
Planning consent was granted for a mosque and community centre at 90 Research Road.
The Society called a General Meeting and opened it to the whole Adelaide Shia community, members and non-members alike, entry free, at Zainab Cemetery. The motto on the agenda: “Unity under the flag of Imam Hussain (AS).”
The meeting set the date for the Society’s next Annual General Meeting, and that meeting was duly held.
Five weeks later the members adopted a new Constitution by unanimous special resolution. It created the structure we run on today: a Board of Trustees as custodians, a Board of Directors accountable to them, and an Executive Team running operations. Membership was opened up and the Alim made independent.
At the same meeting the members approved the purchase of 94 Research Road, Pooraka, for $4.1 million, to establish the community’s permanent home.
In the twelve months following the new Constitution, membership grew from about forty to over 180 financial members.
Planning approval was granted for our community centre and mosque at 94 Research Road, our permanent home. Detailed design and drawings are now under way.
As our Constitution requires, an independent review of the Society’s governance and operations was carried out and presented to members in full. Four segregated bank accounts report monthly.
The mosque and community centre moving from consent to construction. The madressa re-established. A resident Alim. Zainab Cemetery completed and cared for as a waqf for generations.
Our next Annual General Meeting is on Saturday 14 August 2027 at 94 Research Road, Pooraka. Every member is welcome.
None of it came from one person. It came from the elders who led those first weekly gatherings in their own front rooms. From the founding members who put their names and their own money behind the Society in 2009 and would not let it stop. From the twelve Khoja families who made us multicultural.
And above all from the Hazara families of Quetta, who have carried this Society on their shoulders for twenty three years, who filled the majalis and paid the memberships and buried their own at Zainab, and who stayed through the years when there was nothing to show for it.
We present this history because it is ours.
Est. 2009 · Gathering since 2003
Leadership
Volunteer leaders who give their time, expertise and hearts to serve.
Serving multicultural communities since 2004
Specialist in community development and education programs.
Jafar Hussain Jafari started his full secretary activities from July 2025. He actively engaged in funeral services as well.
Ensuring financial integrity and sustainable community growth.
Oversees the maintenance of Jafaria Islamic Society assets. He also lead our Ramadhan and Muharram volunteering activities.
Syed Askar is key point as event coordinator and he leads major events.
Haji Umeed volunteers and making sure our major events smoothly runs. He also engaged in effective commination with the wider Adelaide communities.
Assisting President for most of the volunteering activities
In 2003 this community carried its own chairs between one another's houses. Today it has a home at 94 Research Road, a cemetery of its own at Pooraka, and approval to build the mosque our children were promised. The building of it belongs to all of us, the same way everything before it did.
The design drawings are under way now. Every contribution goes to the build at 94 Research Road, Pooraka.
Donate nowHeld as a waqf, cared for on behalf of this community and the generations after us.
ContributeMembership is open to all Shia Ithna-Asheri families in South Australia. Members elect the Board and decide the Society’s future.
Join usOur majalis, our school and our cemetery have always been run by volunteers. There is a place for you.
Get in touchJafaria Islamic Society Ltd is a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. Every dollar is receipted, banked to a segregated account and reported to members.
