Dr. Sima Goel’s journey from Iran to Montreal was harrowing in the extreme. The country that became an Islamic republic following the overthrow of the Shah’s regime in 1979 was a hostile place for Jews and for all women, especially Jewish women.

“I felt scared to say I was Jewish,” she recalls, adding bitterly, “At the same time, I felt betrayed not to be able to say who I am.”

She was only 14 years old when Ayatollah Khomeini took power. Suddenly, every woman had to assume the hijab, the Muslim manner of dress that hides her hair and covers her body from head to toe.

“If any girl was seen with part of her hair showing, she could have acid thrown in her face,” she said. “You could be killed if you went out with your brother and the authorities thought he was a boyfriend.”

She lived fear of arrest, torture, or even being killed by the regime. In 1980 Sima was prevented from attending school. That was the point at which her mother told her that she no longer had a future in Iran and had to leave. However, she didn’t have a passport, nor could she get one.

At the age of 17, in 1982, she snuck across the border to Pakistan with her sister. After close to a year of living in the filthiest, most appalling conditions, the girls were able flee to Montreal, where they arrived in June 1983 with a total of $60 between them.

When they found the courage to tell an aide worker that they were Jewish, they were referred to Jewish Immigrant Aid Services Montreal (JIAS).

“They took such good care of us. In a time when we didn’t have any family, the Jewish community was our family,” Sima says. She relates how, when her younger sister was afraid to go to school by herself on the first day, their case worker escorted her, just as a mother would bring her child.

Like so many immigrant families over the years – some 3000 over the last seven years, alone – the Goels turned to our Jewish community to help them to establish a new life. When there is no immediate family around to help, the community acts as an extended family, providing assistance and offering the tools to build fulfilling lives.

Ultimately, all of Sima’s family was able to flee Iran and come to Canada. She had the opportunity to attend college and became the first female Wellness Chiropractor to practice in Canada. For the past 13 years, she has operated a clinic in Montreal. She is married and has two children.

Sima looks back gratefully at all the assistance she received from Montreal’s Jewish community. Thanks to its help, she has become a successful Canadian, free to be herself, unafraid and proud to be a Jew.

 

As part of the more than $7.8 million it allocated for social services, Federation CJA provided more than $850,000 to JIAS for 2007-2008.

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