“So Terrible”: Iranian students fleeing back to Canada during conflict – Country
Arash Ghaderi couldn't forget his wife's tears in her eyes and told him the moment when the war had just begun.
Ghaderi, a 35-year-old doctoral student at the University of Alberta, went to Iran last month to visit their family. The couple was still there when the conflict between Israel and Iran broke out on June 13.
“(Open) was the first day of the war, we heard some explosions, we heard jets flying to the ground. It was horrible,” he said in an interview.
“My wife's family, her nieces and nephews were there, they were crying…the noise was so frightening,” he said of their city in Zanjan, about 300 kilometers northwest of Tehran.
“I just tried to control myself and tried to calm my wife down, but in my heart, I was so shocked and I felt so sad. I actually wanted to vomit.”
Ghaderi is one of many Iranians living in Canada who were affected by Israel's attack on Iran's nuclear facilities and the war on top of senior military leaders, and Iran responded with its own strike. A ceasefire was announced Tuesday after the U.S. strikes against major Iranian nuclear facilities.
Tehran said earlier this week that 606 people were killed in the conflict in Iran and 5,332 were injured. At least 28 people were killed in Israel and more than 1,000 were injured, according to officials in the country.
Ottawa urged Canadians to do so safely in Iran, noting that their ability to provide consular services in the country is “extremely limited”.
Gadri said that after all flights were cancelled at the beginning of the conflict, he and his wife decided to leave Iran through a land crossing point. They traveled in a van for seven hours before crossing Türkiye. All domestic flights in Türkiye were booked for a few days, so they had to take a few buses between Turkish cities, about 28 hours to get to Istanbul.
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He said of the long journey, “I can’t feel my legs anymore.”
Ghaderi and his wife finally flew from Istanbul to Edmonton on June 23 through Paris and Toronto.
“On the one hand, I'm glad that at least my wife is safe now,” he said. “On the other hand, I feel very sad because my younger brother is still in Iran and my parents are there.”
Sara Shani, president of the University of Alberta Iran Student Association, said she realized that about 15 students at the school were trapped in Iran while visiting the home country.
“They were trapped at home, …These flights have technically recovered since the ceasefire, but they are still very limited,” she said.
Shani said some of the university's approximately 500 Iranian students are already facing financial difficulties because their families cannot support them — either because they lost their income and assets during the conflict or because they were unable to transfer their money to Canada.
“When the internet shutdown in Iran was in place…it made it difficult for families to send money and, most importantly, many businesses were shut down during the war,” she said.
“Some people were even destroyed by Israeli air strikes…Iran's economy is weaker now than before.”
Shani said it was difficult for her to contact her family in Iran during the war.
“Many of us don’t know if our families are safe,” she said.
Iran is a well-known source of Canadian international students, and government data shows that in 2023, more than 8,000 students from the country received research permits.
“Most Iranian students in Canada have not stayed here until recently to study, so our connection with Iran remains very strong,” said Shani, who came to Canada in 2023 to pursue a master’s degree in computer science.
“Our family got back there and I think we are still in Iran.”
The community also had different sentiments about the strike led by the Islamic Revolutionary Defender, “This is still a source of oppression within and outside Iran,” said Ali Nejati, president of the Iran Student Association of Humber College in Toronto.
“Many of us are relieved of the weakness of the violent sector of this regime. We want to see justice serve in court to expose the full scope of its crimes and take responsibility through international legal channels,” he wrote in a statement.
“We also recognize that war is by no means the ideal path. Many of our members are anxious about the consequences of further escalation.”
& Copy 2025 Canadian Press
