"Iranian refugee goes from airport to freedom in Canada"

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Iranian refugee goes from airport to freedom in B.C.
The Associated Press


VANCOUVER, B.C. - An Iranian refugee who had been living with her two
children at Moscow's international airport for nine months was free in
Canada on Friday.

Zahra Kamalfar, a human-rights activist who says she was jailed in Iran for
demonstrating against the government, arrived at Vancouver International
Airport on Thursday after a flight from Europe.

She burst into tears, then fainted, after being reunited with her brother,
Nader Kamalfar, whom she hadn't seen in nearly 14 years.

Zahra Kamalfar, 47, with Anna, 17, and Davood, 12, had been living in the
transit lounge of the Sheremetyevo International Airport since Russia denied
them entry in May, said her Canadian lawyer, Negar Azmudeh.

Canada agreed to accept Kamalfar and her children after she was granted
refugee status by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

"I don't know how to thank the Canada government. I say thank you, thank
you, thank you so much," she told CBC Television.

Kamalfar's plight began in July 2004, when she and her husband participated
in a demonstration against the Iranian government in Tehran, Azmudeh said.
They were both jailed, and Kamalfar says she was beaten in prison.

The Iranian Embassy in Ottawa did not return a call seeking comment Friday.

Her chance for escape came when she was given a two-day pass from jail to
visit her family in April 2005. When she got home, Kamalfar was told that
her husband had been executed. She then fled Iran with her children with the
intention of coming to Canada, where her brother lives.

The fate of her husband is uncertain, Davood Ghavami of the Iranian Canadian
Congress told The Toronto Star.
 
Kamalfar declined to discuss her ordeal in Iran.

"I don't like to remember because too much for me," she said. "We need time;
maybe after that I can explain for you."

In limbo at Moscow's airport, Kamalfar received food regularly from the
Russian state airliner, Aeroflot, and also relied on the kindness of
strangers.

"That place very hard because we don't have anything," she said. "We cannot
take [a] shower. You cannot sleep."

Kamalfar intends to live in the Vancouver area, home to about 30,000
Iranians

"I want to find a job and a new life," she said.

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