[2] Gardi was born in a United Nations refugee camp in Quetta, Pakistan as her parents fled from persecution in their homeland of Kurdistan.

[3] Gardi's mother fled the Kurdish region of Iraq when her village Sedakan was attacked by chemical weapons during the Anfal campaign.

Gardi's grandmother and two aunts were killed in an attack by Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath regime and her grandfather was disabled.

Gardi has said that she was forced to lie about her Kurdish heritage at school to avoid Islamophobic bullying in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

She represented New Zealand at the Global Refugee Youth Consultations and helped form the Global Youth Advisory Council to the UNHCR, she also has spoken at the UNHCR-NGO Consultations, and the High Commissioner's Dialogue on Protection Challenges, all in Geneva, the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Conference in Bangkok, the Women Deliver Conference in Copenhagen and the OECD Forum in Paris.

She is also working on projects in camps across Iraq and provides workshops to foster participation, leadership, and training opportunities for young refugees.

[20] Gardi advocates for gender equality, particularly the many different forms of discrimination ethnic and minority women face in New Zealand.