‘So terrifying': Iranian student on fleeing back to safety in Canada amid conflict

Winnipeg Free Press

2 days ago

Arash Ghaderi can't forget the moment his wife tearfully woke him up to tell him a war had just started.
Ghaderi, a 35-year-old PhD student at the University of Alberta, and his wife travelled last month to Iran to visit their family members. The couple was still there when the conflict between Israel and Iran broke out on June 13.
'(On) the very first day of the war, we heard some bombings and we heard the jets flying low to the ground. It was so terrifying,' he said in an interview.
'My wife's family members, her nieces and nephews, were there and they were crying …The noise was so horrifying,' he said of their experience in Zanjan, a city located about 300 kilometres northwest of Tehran.
'I just tried my best to control myself and try to calm my wife down, but in my heart I was so shocked and I was feeling so bad. I wanted to vomit actually.'
Ghaderi is one of many Iranians living in Canada who have been affected by the war that broke out when Israel attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and senior military leaders, and Iran responded with its own strikes. A ceasefire was announced on Tuesday, after the United States launched strikes on key nuclear facilities in Iran.
Earlier this week, Tehran said 606 people in Iran had been killed in the conflict, with 5,332 people wounded. At least 28 people were killed in Israel and more than 1,000 were wounded, according to officials in that country.
Ottawa has urged Canadians in Iran to leave if they can do so safely, noting that its ability to provide consular services in the country is 'extremely limited.'
Ghaderi said he and his wife decided to leave Iran through a land border crossing after all flights were cancelled at the start of the conflict. They travelled seven hours in a van before crossing into Turkey. All domestic flights in Turkey were fully booked for days, so they had to take several buses between Turkish cities for about 28 hours to reach Istanbul.
'I couldn't feel my legs anymore,' he said of the long journey.
Ghaderi and his wife eventually flew to Edmonton from Istanbul via Paris and Toronto, landing on June 23.
'I was happy on the way, on one hand, that at least my wife and I are safe now,' he said. 'On the other hand, I was feeling so bad because my little brother is still in Iran, and my parents are there.'
Sara Shani, the president of the Iranian Students Association at the University of Alberta, said she is aware of about 15 students at the school who got stuck in Iran while visiting their home country.
'They are stuck back home and … since the ceasefire, the flights have technically resumed, but they're still very limited,' she said.
Shani said some of the roughly 500 Iranian students at the university are already facing financial difficulties as their families back home are unable to support them – either because they've lost income and assets during the conflict or because they're unable to transfer money to Canada.
'When the internet shutdown was sort of in place in Iran … it made it extremely difficult for the families to send money, and on top of that, many businesses were closed during the war,' she said.
'And some were even destroyed by Israeli airstrikes…the economy in Iran is now weaker than before.'
Shani said she had difficulty contacting her own family in Iran during the war.
'Many of us didn't know whether our families were safe,' she said.
Iran is a notable source of international students in Canada, with government data showing that more than 8,000 study permits were approved for students from that country in 2023.
'Most Iranian students in Canada have only recently left home to study here, so our ties to Iran are still very strong,' said Shani, who came to Canada in 2023 to pursue a master's degree in computer science.
'Our families are back there and I think emotionally we are still in Iran.'
The community also has mixed emotions about the strikes against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leadership, which 'continues to be a source of oppression for Iranians both within and outside Iran,' said Ali Nejati, president of the Iranian Student Association at Humber College in Toronto.
'Many of us feel a sense of relief at the weakening of such a violent arm of the regime. We had hoped to see justice served in a courtroom, to expose the full extent of their crimes and hold them accountable through international legal channels,' he wrote in a statement.
'We also recognize that war is never a desirable path. Many of our members feel anxious about the consequences of further escalation.'
–With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 28, 2025.