John Ashuri and his wife came to Canada in the early 1980s, after being forced to leave Iran due to a difference of faith. “We decided to leave because of the revolution and how our religion was being persecuted,” John says. “We went to Italy where I met with family and started what would become 3 Star Fabrics.”
John had been a practicing architect and university professor in Iran, having obtained all of his training and his doctorate in Florence, Italy. But after he and his family were forced to leave everything behind, his career path took a new direction. After leaving Italy, he resettled in Calgary and started a wholesale fabric store. “My relative had a fabric store in Toronto, so we decided that I would open one in Western Canada,” John says. “I didn’t know English, so I could not pursue architecture here, unfortunately.”
