Kathy Whittaker
The quote above is from Canadian newcomer from Afghanistan, Razia Sayad, who lives happily with her family here in Old Ottawa East. She is delightful, reserved lady, very warm and intelligent. In her former life in Afghanistan, she practiced as a lawyer and served as the former Child Right Commissioner at the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.
Razia and her family arrived in Toronto in October 2021, where they stayed for three months. Thereafter, they moved to Ottawa where they had more family and friends. Razia emphasize that the Catholic Centre for Immigrants has been of great help to her family since they arrived, as have the academic communities of both Toronto and Ottawa.
Here family consists of her husband, who was a journalist in Afghanistan, and who is currently working on his English proficiency, as well as three children who are doing very well in school here, not only learning English quickly, but also aspiring to learn French. Here elderly parents are not in Germany having spent time in Pakistan initially after the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.
Newcomer to Old Ottawa East, Razia Sayad is focused on integrating herself and her family into her new life in Canada. Photo by Kathy Whittaker
Razia spent her early life in Parwan province in Afghanistan in the small village of Gulbahar, which was an agricultural community with formerly happy, productive people. She was able to complete her grade nine schooling there but was without any education at all for three years afterwards. She eventually became a lawyer after retuning to Kabul for her studies and then worked for seven years for the Ministry of Justice. She was studding for her PhD when the Taliban’s arrival put an end to this project.
She spent three days at the Kabul airport attempting to flee Afghanistan with her family, returned home and then asked to emigrated to Canada, as it is know to her as ‘the Queen of Human Rights’. When she arrived, after having to travel through Albania and Italy, she took one year specialize English course at Algonquin College in order to find work. She was one of six activists accepted into the Placement, Preservation and Perseverance: Afghan at Risk Scholar and Activist Project Program at Carleton University. While studying at Carleton, she was encouraged to apply for the PhD program there, even as he was attempting to pass her English proficiency test for program admission, a task she is currently working on.
Since her arrival in Canada, Razia has been completely engaged with colleagues in helping to settle 250 Afghani families in a variety of countries, including Canada. She continues with this volunteer work, and as her family no longer receives financial support from the Canadian government as refugees, Razia earns some income consulting to the Untied Nation Women Afghanistan program. She has also written articles for international journals on the topic of the current status of human rights in Afghanistan.
As an advocate, and as a woman, Razia has received harmful threats over the past 15 years in Afghanistan. When asked if she receives negative comment from people in Ottawa, she answers not at all, and she is grateful simply not to be ridiculed when in public, contrary to what happens in Afghanistan.
Another great joy of hers, she recounts, is being able to swim for the first time in her live here in Ottawa. Girls are forbidden to swim in Afghanistan. A great sadness to her is having to grieved the dream she had of her country, becoming a democracy. As well arriving in Canada as an immigrant, she comment on how “one lose one’s identity, who you are and who you have been elsewhere, like you are staring everything from scratch from the beginning”. This does not stop Razia from moving forward with the many plans for integrating into Canadian life for herself and for her family.
Razia Sayad is a hard-working newcomer who pushes daily to integrated herself and her family into her new country and her community, and to continue her extensive education and offer to others the wealth of her experiences
Kathy Whittaker is a member of the Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW), a group of university women helping Afghanistan women. This article is one of a series of articles written by C.F.U.W. volunteers on Afghanistan women now residing throughout the Ottawa area.
