Afghanistan Committee on March 28th, 2022

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

All right. Thank you.

Ms. Rezayee, what are your thoughts on what I was asking, about possible racism and Islamophobia?

[Friba Rezayee]

I'm a Canadian citizen now. I'm very proud and I'm honoured to have been given the citizenship. I love it here very much, but it disappoints me to a great extent to see that racism exists and it's oblivious, to separate the Afghans from the Ukrainians, given the history and the fact that we both have been the victims of the same troll here. Afghans share the pain of Ukrainian folks, because the Russian occupation did brutal things to Afghans. The only difference is that, back then, because the world did not have social media or an Internet connection, they could not advocate and they could not broadcast in two seconds what was going on. Now, people in Ukraine can. That is, in fact, what's happening.

Here in Canada, we hear that human rights are universal, but they're not. When it comes to human rights, people pick and choose. It became a buffet for people to help certain people and not help other people. What we have been seeing—and what I have been personally witnessing since August of last year—is that one group of people has monopolized the IRCC. As Wazhma mentioned, they have only been evacuating and focusing on male interpreters. As much as we would like to see those families seek refuge and find safety in Canada, it's also important to focus on female leaders and female athletes.

Let's check the comparison. There are 9,000 families versus 15 female athletes. That is unacceptable. We need to open the category. We need to reach out, because Canada gave us a definition of people at risk. They are highly vulnerable people and people coming from ethnic minorities, such as the Hazara people, LGBTQ people and women athletes.

We need to help everybody at the same time. There's space for everyone. There's space for Ukrainian folks. There's space for women leaders.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Ms. Rezayee, I have another question on that. You mentioned that you had women with full-ride scholarships, but the visas were denied. Were we talking about one or two people? How many cases do we have of that?

[Friba Rezayee]

I'm talking about 20-plus students at the moment. They have even received acceptance letters from very good, reputable universities like Simon Fraser University, UBC and the University of Calgary, but their visas have been denied on the grounds that they will not return home.

What I would like to suggest to the Canadian government and IRCC is to start a pilot project for the student visas. These are the youngest and brightest people who will rebuild Afghanistan. Afghanistan relies on them. We need to invest in these people to equip them with education, and they will become the leaders of tomorrow.

We know what's happening. We have been devastated by what has been happening in our home country. My own brother was beaten by the Taliban. We are ethnic Hazara minorities, so we have been victims of the Taliban directly.

We want to see that changed by the IRCC as soon as possible.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you very much, Mr. Redekopp.

We will move to Mrs. Zahid for six minutes, please.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thanks to all three of our witnesses.

My first question is for all three witnesses. I would like to focus on the challenge of getting people who are currently in Afghanistan and who need protection out of the country and on their way to safety, especially the vulnerable women and girls. We know it's not as easy as just booking a flight. The Associated Press reported this weekend that the Taliban are refusing to allow women to board flights if they are not accompanied by a male guardian.

Could you speak to the challenges that women and girls, especially in households without men, face in leaving the country? What can Canada do to help them?

I will start with Ms. Frogh.

[Wazhma Frogh]

Thank you.

I very much think you are also talking about the war widows. We have two million of these women who are living in different parts of the country and do not have any male members of the family, because they have lost them to the war. They literally do not have any means to get out of the country. Evacuations could be one way or, for example, there could be some special measures where they could be provided a visa to a third country, and then that third country would take the case further.

Other than that, I'm also thinking about the importance of engaging with Afghanistan, because how many people can you evacuate, how many people can you sponsor to Canada? We have a population of 40 million, so I very much think Canada needs to plan its engagement in Afghanistan if it really cares about the communities left behind.

I work with 200 women on a daily basis. There are many organizations engaged on the ground. Also, the focus should be on putting pressure on the Taliban. They need to be pressured into accepting today's Afghanistan.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Ms. Frogh.

I'll ask Mr. Dilsoz to provide his point of view.

[Wadood Dilsoz]

I think it's a big challenge for Afghan women. I speak daily with many women in Afghanistan, and they talk about the challenge of not being able to leave the country without a male. The only way that I think we could offer this is with a third party who could speak with the Taliban. There has to be pressure put on the Taliban in order to accept these measures.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Ms. Rezayee, go ahead.

[Friba Rezayee]

Thank you so much, Ms. Zahid.

It's a fact that the Taliban has imposed strict sharia law on Afghan women. They require women to be accompanied by a mahram, a male guardian, as soon as they leave home.

I would suggest to IRCC that they need to focus on their job. They need to do their work, to issue those visas for the applicants who have applied. Let the Afghans figure out and take care of their business on the ground, because Afghans are very good at manoeuvring ourselves on the ground. We will take care of arranging a mahram and making sure that they will go to the airport or the border safely. All we are asking from the government is to give them those visas.

People like the ones on this panel, like me and my family, and so many other volunteers.... We call ourselves the “sleep-deprived volunteers”. We share the burden of IRCC's work, and we are providing the government with solutions, because we are doing most of the paperwork. We are the people who are helping them with the allowances, cash, money for food and rent on the ground. The government just needs to issue visas for them, that's all.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Ms. Rezayee.

My next question is for Ms. Frogh. Close to 10,000 Afghans have already arrived in Canada. Can you please explain how countries can prioritize whom to resettle, given that there are millions of vulnerable Afghans, and that one country alone cannot resettle all vulnerable Afghans.

[Wazhma Frogh]

The vulnerability of each group is different. For example, we have young women in all sectors: women in sports, women in business, women in media. Young women should be a category that is provided priority for visas, as well as women-led households, families with older women who have kids they have to look after, and at the same time ethnic minorities. For example, there are the Hazaras, Shias, Uzbeks in Afghanistan. Ethnic minorities also need to be provided opportunities. I think Canada needs to broaden its scope beyond just the translators. As I said before, the women who worked with the Canadian military are right now inside Afghanistan.

We don't know how to get answers. We don't know how to get connected.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Are there any other barriers women and girls are facing in the relocation and resettlement process?

[Wazhma Frogh]

The challenge of going to another country still applies to them as well, because they cannot travel on their own or, for example, if they do not have a visa arranged. Engaging Qatar or Pakistan politically is so important to get these women out.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you very much, Mrs. Zahid.

We'll move to Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe, for six minutes, please.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank the witnesses, again. With their expertise, we will be able to do things better and be better. That's the purpose of our study.

Ms. Frogh, your comments are very interesting, as are those of all the other witnesses.

You mentioned minorities. At the beginning of our study, we had a representative from the Hazara community. In June 2021, before the Taliban took over, Mr. Mirzad gave powerful testimony to the committee. I was particularly moved when he said that the life of a Hazara in Afghanistan is that of a death row inmate, living on probation, waiting for an imminent execution. I believe that this sentence is even truer today, as this is now the daily life of a majority of Afghans, Hazaras or not, who want to flee the country.

Can you tell us what the situation is for Hazaras, at the moment, in Afghanistan?

[Wazhma Frogh]

On the daily reports, I actually collect a lot of reports that I share with the UN Security Council and members of the government in Canada. What you hear in the media, the restrictions.... Women have been literally banned from the public, so you do not see women in government and in any jobs. Women have also been banned from any non-government spaces.

At the same time, the community members are facing challenges. They cannot go around. Women have been stopped from travelling without a mahram. There are different vulnerable groups. As I said before, ethnic minorities are there. The Tajiks themselves are not an ethnic minority, but it's one of the ethnicities that are very much under attack by the Taliban. We get reports on a daily basis of the killing of people.

The media has been banned. This week, the BBC, the Voice of America, and all of them were stopped in Afghanistan. We are afraid that in a few days we will lose the Internet as well, and then we would never hear what is going on inside Afghanistan. The situation is as terrible as I'm actually talking about.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you, Ms. Frogh.

Ms. Rezayee, I want to congratulate you on all your important work.

I will be brief, as I my speaking time is limited.

To your knowledge, as of today, how many Afghan female athletes have been accepted into Canada for resettlement?

[Friba Rezayee]

Thank you so much, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe.

There have been only 15 female athletes so far. Our volleyball team, cycling team and judo team are all in hiding, either in Afghanistan or in Pakistan. They're actually sending me messages every day. Many of them have applied to IRCC, and they even received letters and correspondence from IRCC, but they still haven't received their visas to be able to travel to Canada.

One good example is that of one of our judo athletes, whose house was raided by the Taliban. The Taliban searched her house looking for any documents she had as an athlete ID, so the Taliban could use it against her.

We have an 18-year-old waiting for her study permit in Pakistan. She has been accepted at an all-girls boarding school in Canada with a full-ride scholarship, and she wants to become the first Afghan female president. She is stuck in Pakistan and she's all by herself. She has completed her biometrics, all her applications and everything. She's just in limbo now. I would love to see her receive a response from the Canadian High Commission or from the third party in Abu Dhabi where they process student visas.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

This is very important—

[Friba Rezayee]

The situation is dire—

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Excuse me for interrupting you, but what you are telling us tonight is important. What you say will indeed find its way into the report. It is important that we know why being athletes puts these women at such high risk in Afghanistan.

[Friba Rezayee]

Thank you so much for asking that question, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe. I appreciate it.

The reason the Taliban has banned women's sports is that women's sports are forbidden under the Taliban's sharia law, because they send sexual vibes to men. Women's sports bring visibility to women's bodies, and that is haram—according to their interpretation of sharia law, not the modern Islam. Therefore, they're at high risk. They're in danger.

One of the members of our volleyball team was murdered suspiciously when the Taliban took over, and the rest are in hiding. One of the members of our volleyball team recently sent me a picture of herself. The Taliban found her and they beat her and she had bruises all over her body.

What I would like to see is for Canada to honour its promises. Canada promised that they will evacuate women leaders and human rights defenders. Athletes are human rights defenders. I was a human rights defender, because my participation at the Olympic Games as the first Afghan woman brought Afghanistan back to the world arena, to world sport, for the first time after the fall of the Taliban, and that inspired hundreds of Afghan women to join sports. It was a sports revolution.

Now we're all going backwards. When the Taliban returned, it felt like Afghanistan was hit by a giant meteorite and it set us back 30 years.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you very much, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe.