Uncertainty making nightmare worse for families of crash victims
Jan. 8, 2020, is a date that will never be forgotten. Tragedy struck when the Iranian government shot down UIA Flight 752 on the outskirts of Tehran.
Many people around the world, including Canadians and Iranians, are mourning alongside one another. Today, we know more about the 57 Canadians who died with the majority of them being academics, students, doctors and other highly accomplished professionals.
But little is known here about the remaining 81 passengers with connecting flights to Canada. They endured the hardship of obtaining Canadian visas while facing challenges stemming from the lack of bilateral relations between the two countries; Canada severed diplomatic ties with Iran and closed its embassy in Tehran in 2012.
A political divide between the countries causes further complexities relating to death, burial and grief.
Canada is home to a large Iranian diaspora with some 210,000 citizens of Iranian descent. Yet the absence of a Canadian embassy in Iran makes access to justice and repatriation of bodies a difficult, if not impossible, task.
Burial in Canada is a way of embracing a deeper sense of belonging and rooting in the host country. Uncertainty about burial arrangements ultimately impacts bereavement. Such grief turns to a sense of powerlessness, anger and frustration even for a very resilient Iranian community.
Delays and interruption to burial cause trauma and emotional limbo while affecting individuals’ sense of integrity and human rights, particularly when bodies are kept as political hostages by the Iranian government.
In the past week, thousands of Canadians have mourned the human loss on Flight 752 by attending vigils to commemorate the memory of victims through narrative, poetry and the lighting of candles. They have launched the “Canada Strong Campaign” to raise funds for families, particularly to cover the excessive cost of repatriating bodies.
They have taken measures to support bereaved families and ensure accountability. This is an important step for an Iranian community that has endured complex and multilayered losses over the course of their displacement, migration and integration as well as the traumatic experiences of their loved ones in Iran. The unity of Canada as a collective voice reaffirms a sense of belonging in their home away from home.
It is difficult to comprehend that victims’ relatives in Iran are denied their basic right to mourn and grieve or arrange for the repatriation of their loved ones. Instead, they find themselves confronted by extreme measures used to silence them.
Over the past week, the number of demonstrations and subsequent arrests on busy streets of major cities has mounted. For these reasons and more, the focus of our collective bereavement should be placed on collectively demanding justice, acknowledgement, apology, restitution, repatriation, compensation and recognition.