Judith Castillo interviews Mehran, a local Tri-Cities resident who is willing to share her account of being an Iranian immigrant living here in Canada. She speaks of the protest in Iran that have boiled over after the death of a young woman at the hands of the morality police there. Mehran prefers not to give her last name or even say which city she live in here in the Tri-Cities. We respect this request because it is for the safety of herself, her family here in Canada, and especially her extended family still living in Iran.

This is in fact the underlying story here. Many former Iranians that have sough refuge here in Canada do not feel safe because of the influence the Iranian government has in our country. Sounds like a familiar story with the recent stories of undue influences from foreign interests in China being found here in the Vancouver's Lower Mainland and across Canada. In this case it is very much a problem of our own making when after the Iranian revolution in 1979 Canada first began welcoming wealthy Iranian Immigrants tied to the regime with very little scrutiny, according to Mehran.

Recently the Trudeau government has made moves to rectify the situation and numerous people have been expelled, she explained. Other Iranian families with ties to the regime have been barred from entering Canada.This would appear to be a move in the right direction but if people are still fearful of speaking their own minds here in Canada, that would suggest that there is still much work to be done in this area, as Mehran makes clear.  

We see the weekly Iranian protests held in Vancouver growing by the week. There is safety in numbers and we, as Canadian citizens, should do our best to support their cause, but we should work equally hard to make sure that every individual living here in Canada feels safe to express their opinions about matters whether international or domestic - that's clear from what Mehran says.

Mehran was living in Iran during the revolution and gives her account of the take over and human rights abuses that she witnessed taking place. The extremist views of what the Islam religion was about in the views of the new regime, women living in Iran were particularly persecuted and lost the rights thst they had achieved under the Shah of Iran. While too young to take part in the revolution herself, Mehran grew up seeing the changes that took place first hand and eventually became a vocal supporter of human rights and spoke out against the regime. This drew the attention of local officials in Iran and resulted in a two year prison sentence that she served before leaving Iran and eventually emigrating to Canada.