Iranians in Quebec City channel their pain into action as they watch mass protests unfold from afar
CBC
Ava says it feels like just yesterday that she was on campus at a university in Tehran.
But her life before immigrating to Canada four years ago seems so distant now, it also feels like "ages ago."
Sitting outside the library on the campus of Université Laval in Quebec City, the PhD student recalls all the things she misses about her life in Iran.
Studying in the café next to university, chatting with friends, going to the cinema, visiting her grandparents and planning picnics and road trips.
"The streets in Tehran beside my university were very beautiful during fall. It was exactly like here," said Ava, looking up at the trees, which have turned a hue of yellow.
Along with the fond memories of growing up in Iran surrounded by family and friends in an "open-minded community," Ava notes there are darker reminders, some which speak to why she left the country in 2018.
Ava is not her real name. CBC News is protecting her identity because she fears for her family's safety in Iran for speaking publicly.
"My university was kind of the open-minded university among all the universities," she recalled. "We were not forced to wear very tight hijabs."
"(But) even in my university, there were some professors that were coming to us and telling us, you know, you're not allowed to come to university (without tight hijabs)," said Ava, referring to the strict modesty rules in Iran which were implemented in 1979.
"I was tired of that prison."
Ava says she made the decision to leave her country and pursue her education in Canada but she has struggled with how to navigate and support friends and family from afar as unrest built and protests erupted in her home country.
Most recently, Ava was one of the hundreds of Iranians in Quebec City who attended protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in Iran.
Amini died on Sept. 16 following her arrest by Iran's morality police in Tehran for allegedly wearing her headscarf too loosely.
Her death sparked international condemnation and protests in, and outside of, the country.
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