‘I was crying the whole day’: Iranian students in Canada speak on their fears

Genevieve Beauchemin has more on the impact the war is having on Iranian students in Montreal and how one professor is trying to help.

MONTREAL – More than 20,000 Iranians study in post-secondary institutions across Canada. Many of them now fear for their families, worried about their own financial situation and about their future.

They say they knew they would face challenges by choosing to pursue their dreams of studying abroad but were not fully prepared for the consequences of the conflict.

CTV News spoke with two international students at McGill University about how the fallout from the war in their home country is hitting them thousands of kilometres away.

‘Stress, uncertainty is unbelievable’

“When people ask, ‘How is your family?’ I don’t even know what to answer. I was not prepared for this,” said international student Negin Ghahramani. “I am really concerned about the people in Iran. It is in my mind all the time.”

Ghahramani is pursuing a master’s program in dental sciences and was receiving support from her parents for tuition and living expenses.

“Often, the internet is cut off, so receiving money from exchange services is way more difficult,” she said. “I was able to pay my tuition for this semester, but I had friends that were not able, and they are going through very difficult challenges.”

“The currency in Iran is in rials, and with the exchange, it makes things even more expensive, so this is another challenge we are facing here,”

But Ghahramani says her biggest concern is the people of Iran.

“I was chatting with one of my friends who was able to get online for a few seconds, and she just wrote a few sentences for me, and she told me that she woke up to the sound of bombs this morning, that they were just next to her,” she said.

“I was crying the whole day. She hasn’t been online and I am worried about her right now.”

‘We came here with one suitcase’

“We came here and we left behind our loved ones, our parents, our families,” said international student Nasim Khosravi. “We came here with hope, but we are facing a lot of challenges.”

Khosravi is a third-year PhD candidate in public oral health sciences.

“It makes it very difficult for us to focus here. We have studies, we have work, and it is very difficult to even do the simplest tasks sometimes,” she said. “I myself sold my house in Iran, and we came here with our savings, but you know it may not be enough, because we came here with a plan, and we have to finish our studies.”

“Maybe you say, ‘Okay, if you cannot afford the tuition fees you can go back home.’ But we are not able to go home, because the door is closed, and there is a war in our country.”