An Owen Sound business owner and Afghan Canadian is among those trying to access the federal government’s resettlement program to get his family out of Afghanistan.
Bayshore Broadcasting News has agreed to protect the identity of the business owner in this story, over concerns some details could further compromise the safety of his mother and father still in Afghanistan. In this report, the Owen Sound business owner will be referred to as Farshid.
Farshid is a Canadian citizen who was born in Afghanistan in 1981. He moved to Canada in 2007, making stops in Toronto, Midland and Collingwood before settling in Owen Sound in 2008. The Scenic City has been his home since. He lives here with his wife, who is also from Afghanistan, and two kids. They have a house. Together, Farshid and his wife run a small business.
Farshid has been frantically working to do what he can to help his parents escape Afghanistan since the Taliban entered Kabul on Aug. 15 and took control of the country.
Farshid fears for their safety because his mother is a well-known human rights activist. He provided various newspaper clippings written in english-, dari- and pashto-language publications featuring the work of his mother on elections in Afghanistan. He says she has worked with United Nations agencies as well on support programs for women and children that have been abused.
Farshid says the Taliban are actively trying to “go after anyone they don’t like.” He says anyone that used to work for government, activists or anyone who “worked to rebuild the country” for the past 20 years are all in danger.
He sent an application to Global Affairs Canada last week — on Thursday, Aug. 19 — for his parents to be resettled under the emergency programs established to help vulnerable Afghan nationals.
Farshid says an automated response was sent back quickly via email from Global Affairs Canada notifying him the application was received and being processed. He’s still waiting to learn if his parents will be accepted.
In the meantime, Farshid says his mother and his father have been in hiding — moving carefully from one house to another. He says his parents plan to make their way to Kabul Airport after they receive confirmation of approval into the resettlement program, as he’s heard from others on the ground it will be necessary for entry at the airport.
Farshid says his wife would also love to bring her family out — mom, dad, sister and brother — but worries they won’t qualify for Canada’s resettlement program. He says his wife’s sister was a teacher in high school and that puts her at risk because the Taliban “don’t like women teachers.”
According to the federal government’s website, the resettlement of 20,000 vulnerable Afghans to Canada is open to those who assisted the Government of Canada and their families, as well as those outside of Afghanistan who don’t have a durable solution in a third country.
This includes women leaders, human rights advocates, LBGT individuals, journalists and people who assisted Canadian journalists, immediate family members of those eligible and extended family of previously resettled interpreters who assisted Canada.
The United States Defense Department confirmed Tuesday that there will be no change to the August 31 withdrawal date to have all American forces out of Afghanistan.
Farshid worries about what the looming withdrawal of American forces might mean for those Afghans in trouble who don’t get out in time. He has seen the violence of the Taliban firsthand and says they can “never be trusted,” despite the terrorist regime’s efforts to put on a “good face” in public press conferences since taking control of Afghanistan.
“I’ve seen how they run, how they govern, how they cut body parts,” Farshid says of the Taliban. “There is no way to trust them.”
He has been in regular contact with friends and family in Afghanistan since the country fell to the Taliban just over a week ago. He showed one video taken near his hometown in Herat province of the Taliban shooting people they had captured. Farshid showed another video that he says shows the execution of a police chief in Badghis province. A report published by Business Insider on Aug. 21 meets the description of the graphic video, and says General Haji Mullah Achakzai was gunned down.
One other video Farshid attempted to view did not work anymore because it was taken down by Facebook, something he says has happened regularly on social media networks when images or video emerge from Afghanistan because of their gruesome nature.
Farshid hopes the Canadian government, and others working to provide humanitarian aid, take action to help those in Afghanistan who “will be executed and shot” by the Taliban.