People gathered at the University of Victoria Thursday to mourn the death of a first-year UVic student and 175 others in the crash of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 shortly after takeoff in Iran.
“You are not alone in your grief and distress,” said Mehdi Hashemi, chair of the UVic Graduate Students’ Society, which hosted a memorial gathering.
“We will stand by your side, in spirit.”
The University of Victoria confirmed that first-year commerce student Roja Omidbakhsh was on the plane that crashed, killing all 176 people aboard; 138 of them had connecting flights to Canada.
Of the Canadians who lost their lives, a majority belonged to the Iranian-Canadian community and many were academics, said Hashemi.
Omidbakhsh, born in 1996, was named on a passenger list released by the airline.
UVic president Jamie Cassels conveyed sympathy on behalf of the university to all the families and friends of those who perished in the crash, adding: “Our hearts and thoughts go out to Roja’s loved ones.”
Omidbakhsh, who spoke fluent English and Farsi and had done a one-year internship as a junior marketing assistant, was registered in the Gustavson School of Business, and was in professor Mark Colgate’s class.
Colgate met with Omidbakhsh only a few times but said she was mature, always smiling and positive, and had a keen interest in marketing.
“For us to lose a member of our community and to lose a student that was in our first year and was so enthusiastic about doing a business degree at the University of Victoria, it’s hard to put into words but it’s just such a tragic incident,” said Colgate.
“We’re really trying to get our heads around this and what this means for all the other students … students who sat next to her every single day that will take this loss very personally, too.”
Like other first-year students enrolled at the School of Business, Omidbakhsh also took courses across several faculties.
UVic is offering counselling and support to all members of the university community who knew Omidbakhsh or are affected by her death.
Former federal Liberal candidate Cheryl Thomas, who worked in Iran for eight years until 2012 running a master of business administration program on Kish Island in the Persian Gulf, was at the memorial gathering.
Thomas scoured the names of the dead on the passenger list made public by the airline “with a feeling of dread.” She came upon the name of a former student, Maryam Malek.
Thomas, who teaches at UVic’s School of Business, advised and taught Malek as she studied for her MBA in international business in 2011. Over the years, they stayed in contact and Thomas wrote a reference letter for Malek to take a masters in finance degree in Halifax — to where she was returning Wednesday when her plane crashed. She had only started her studies there in September.
“She was a feisty little firecracker,” said Thomas. “She wasn’t five feet tall, but she was persistent in pursuing her goals and she worked really, really hard in order to do that.”
“It’s kind of a small world for the Iranians who are very well educated and coming to Canada for education,” said Thomas. “Education is very highly valued in Iran. The universities are overflowing. Sixty per cent of the students are women. Many get scholarships in North America to continue their studies.”
Thomas said U.S. President Donald Trump’s economic sanctions on Iran have made life difficult for many people in Iran and it’s why students must fly through Ukraine or Russia to get to Canada.
“It became unfortunate when the big airlines no longer flew into Iran,” said Thomas. “Trump’s sanctions made life so so difficult for so many people who were already suffering.”
UVic professor Peyman Vahabzadeh, born and raised in Iran, immigrated to Canada in 1989. He said the death toll “is unimaginable.”
Vahabzadeh expects to hear the names of more students as it becomes clear who was on the plane.
The deaths are “a sort of indirect consequence” of the sanctions imposed by the U.S. on Iran which caused several European-based airlines to pull out of serving the country. Prior to the sanctions, students typically flew through Europe via Amsterdam or Frankfurt to Toronto and Vancouver, he said.
“Now they have to choose this longer route through either Ukraine or Russia,” said Vahabzadeh.
“Sanctions are meant in theory to punish the rulers of a country or whatever, but it’s always the normal people in the street who are hurt by the sanctions.”
Amirali Baniasadi, UVic professor and director of the electrical engineering program, said great tragedies such as Wednesday’s are times for grief. But they are also appropriate times for telling stories about those who have died.
Baniasadi said he personally knew two on board the plane, a former student from another university and the daughter of a family friend and noted human rights worker who ran a Persian library in Montreal and had moved to Toronto.
He urged the listeners to tell stories of anyone they knew who had been on the plane so they can be remembered as living people.
“Remembering is not just repeating their names,” he said. “It is also talking about them, sharing our memories of them, making sure they are more than just names and numbers or pieces of news.
“I’m sure many of you knew people who have lost their lives,” said Baniasadi. “Share their stories and let’s make sure they are remembered as brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers and children.”
