From 1978 to 1981, Gafarova was a teacher at a high school in Shamkir. From 1981 to 2020, she worked at the Baku Slavic University as a laboratory assistant, teacher, professor, and head of the Department of European Languages. At the Western Caspian University she was dean of the Faculty of Western Languages from 2000 to 2004. In the
2010 election Gafarova won a seat in the
National Assembly as a member of the
New Azerbaijan Party. During her tenure in the assembly she was Deputy Chair of the Family, Women and Children's Affairs committee. Gafarova was elected
Speaker of the assembly on 10 March 2020, and reelected on 23 September 2024. Gafarova was a member of Azerbaijan's delegation to the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 2010 to 2020, and head of the delegation to the
Euronest Parliamentary Assembly from 2018 to 2020. She is the head of the delegation to the
Inter-Parliamentary Union,
TURKPA, and
CIS Interparliamentary Assembly. ==Personal life==