Iranian-Canadians gripped with fear and uncertainty trying to reach family after U.S., Israeli attacks

Globe and Mail

2 days ago

Saeed Abdollahi had just returned to his Calgary home after work when a friend phoned with the news that U.S. air strikes had targeted his hometown of Isfahan, in central Iran. His heart sank; this was the moment he had feared.
The 31-year-old architect turned on the television, desperate for more information from news channels. He frantically tapped out messages to family and friends in Iran, knowing that a near-complete internet blackout meant they wouldn't be received. The government has said it ordered the shutdown because of cybersecurity concerns.
Mr. Abdollahi tried calling, but got no answer – he hoped because it was the middle of the night in Iran.
'I was kind of having this nightmare that it is possible to lose my whole family and everybody that I know from home at the same time,' he said in an interview. 'It was hard times. I can't even describe that.'
Unease spreads through Iranian-Canadian communities after U.S. strikes
The U.S. air strikes on Iran's Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites followed more than a week of attacks by Israel on Iran. The fallout of the conflict has reverberated thousands of kilometres away, including to the Iranian diaspora in Canada who have watched and worried from afar.
Mr. Abdollahi, who moved to Canada in 2021 to complete his master's degree, had been on edge throughout the escalation of the long-simmering conflict. After warnings of an imminent offensive by Israel aimed at Iran's nuclear program and military targets, some family members had fled Tehran to seek safety in Isfahan, only for it, too, to be targeted a week later.
Mr. Abdollahi would learn a short time later that his family and friends were safe. But the anxiety of an uncertain future remains.
'I keep following the news, the experts on the situation. But even they don't know what's going to happen,' he said. 'The uncertainty is going to remain. My friends and family over there have the same feeling, that it's not over yet.'
A timeline of the Israel-Iran conflict and tensions between the two countries
Amir Samani moved to Canada at age 12, which was difficult, but he has grown up to understand why his parents left Iran in 2012. The country requires young men to serve in the military – one of the reasons Mr. Samani's last visit was as a teenager.
When missiles first struck Iran weeks ago, most of his family left Tehran and took refuge in safer, more rural areas of the country. Mr. Samani's grandmother, who can't travel, stayed behind with his uncle in the city.
Not everyone could leave areas targeted by Israeli forces. Many Iranians live in densely populated cities such as Tehran, and residents have work, school and familial responsibilities, said Mr. Samani, who works for a creative agency in Vancouver.
Mr. Samani still can't clearly communicate with his family because of sporadic internet outages. He stays in touch through his cousin, who accesses the internet via a VPN, a method he says is uncommon in Iran because it's expensive and requires bypassing firewalls.
'There's a bottleneck on information to a point that locals have a tough time communicating, even by phone calls or lines, because everything's been outed,' Mr. Samani said.
Canadians fleeing war in Iran face obstacles in absence of diplomatic ties
Sanaz Safa's mother had travelled to Iran shortly before Israel's strikes on the country to visit her ailing mother. After Israel launched its offensive and Iran closed its airspace, Ms. Safa's mother told her daughter in a short phone call that her return flights were cancelled, but that she was not worried.
'And then after that, there was no communication at all,' said Ms. Safa, a medical esthetician in Vancouver. 'There was no internet, there was nothing. I tried to call direct with my own phone, and there was no connection at all.'
In a vacuum of information, Ms. Safa feared the worst. Her mind went to 2019, when Iranian authorities shut down internet access during widespread protests to quell information sharing and hide the killing of hundreds of protesters by the country's security forces.
'I was really worried because when government disconnects the internet, that means that they are doing something to the people,' she said. 'I was worried they would do something to civilians and blame it on Israel or the U.S.'
Ms. Safa heard from her mother about a week later, when internet connectivity improved. With her mother expected to fly out of Tehran in coming days, and most of their family now living in Europe, Ms. Safa says her thoughts are now with the people of Iran.