News Release 3, Mrs Kamalfar’s reception on her arrival to Vancouver, Canada

Zahra Kamalfar arrives in Canada!

23 months of homelessness and nightmare draws to an end due to international solidarity! 

IFIR’s comprehensive News Conference at Vancouver Airport, Canada

Zahra Kamalfar: “I can now feel freedom.”

Anna, Mrs Kamalfar’s 17 year old daughter: “At long last I can stare at the sky. I can look at the sun and the moon. I can breathe oxygen.”

Zahra Kamalfar and her 2 children Anna, 17 and Davood, 12 arrived in Canada on Thursday 15 March 2007.

Earlier, the Vancouver branch of IFIR had called upon the news agencies in Canada to take part in a news conference at Vancouver airport on the arrival of Zahra Kamalfar.

Hours before the arrival of Zahra Kamalfar, many reporters from the Canadian news agencies and media were present and held interviews with Tahmineh Sadeghi, the IFIR’s Secretary together with Zari Asli and Jamshid Saboori, members of the Worker-communist Party of Iran (WPI).

These agencies included: CBC Television Network (English and French Service), CBC Radio Network (English and French Service), CTV Television Network, MTV Television Network, M. Channel Television Network, 11.30 Radio as well as The Global, Metro, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, Scripps News and others.

In this News Conference, the members of the IFIR and the WPI made reference to 23 months of homelessness and 9 months of tragic life of this family in the transit hall of Moscow airport and referred to it as the symbol of negligence and irresponsible behaviour of the European governments towards the refugees.    

During their interviews, they expressed that the Kamalfars had been victimised by the Islamic Republic on the one hand and their rights as refugees violated and compromised by the Western governments on the other.

They also pointed out the role of the IFIR and its global efforts to gain support in its international solidarity movement as the essential ingredient in the success of this campaign to save this family.

Canadian national and local television networks broadcast comprehensive reports about the News Conference and Mrs Kamalfar’s arrival reception.

Mrs Kamalfar and her children left the transit hall of Vancouver airport after an hour to meet the crowd and unite with her brother. Tens of reporters surrounded Mrs Kamalfar and her children and the cameras were flashing all over them. Mrs Zahra Kamalfar appeared in front of the TV cameras and said: “I can now feel freedom after a long time”.

Anna, Mrs Kamalfar’s 17 year old daughter looked up at the sky as she walked out of the airport and said to the reporters: “At long last, I can stare at the sky. I can look at the sun, the moon and the stars. I can breath Oxygen”.

The IFIR’s activists while holding placards displaying welcoming messages and a series of white balloons which read “Congratulations, We love you, and Victory at last”, greeted the Kamalfars.

Hambastegi, the International Federation of Iranian Refugees would like to congratulate Mrs Kamalfar and her children on their resettlement in Canada and wish them a happy life in Canada. We also extend this to all those who supported this campaign and took active part in it or offered their moral support to save Zahra Kamalfar.

Mrs Kamalfar’s resettlement in Canada means that a family was saved from the claws of a human tragedy. However, our struggle doesn’t end here! Saving the lives of other refugees is still on the agenda. Hundreds and thousands of other families are enduring the nightmare of bewilderment and deportation in Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan and other parts of the world. The success achieved in this campaign and the comprehensive international support gained, must be turned into a corner-stone of other future campaigns for the freedom of all those noble people who fled the living hell of the Islamic Republic and were not prepared to live life under the tyranny of the Islamic rulers.

The success of this campaign must become the launching pad to further strengthen the efforts of the IFIR in its future campaigns to save more people from the tyranny of the Islamic Republic as well as the injustice of the “western democracy”.

Long live the international solidarity in defence of the rights of refugees.

Hambastegi International Federation of Iranian Refugee

15 March 2007