Iranian refugee recounts harrowing escape

MONTREAL — Growing up Jewish in Iran was a “Garden of Eden” for Sima Goel. But that changed abruptly after the Islamic revolution of 1979.

Sima Goel

“I was 15 when I was suddenly told what to wear, what to believe and who to like. My best friend was arrested for speaking out against injustice, and my aunt was abducted and executed,” Goel told an audience of almost 800 women attending Choices, a major event of the women’s campaign of Combined Jewish Appeal.

Goel, now a Montreal chiropractor, was one of two immigrant women who shared their stories and their gratitude to the Jewish communities of their adopted countries.

Alina Gerlovin Spaulding, born in the Soviet Union in 1973, came to the United States in 1979 with her parents after years of trying to emigrate, thanks to the assistance of the Joint Distribution Committee.

Today, she works for the Greensboro Jewish Federation in North Carolina as director of outreach and education.

Goel said that after the Ayatollah Khomeini seized power, her family feared leaving the house for months. “Acid would be thrown in your face if even a bit of your hair was showing,” said Goel, a native of Shiraz in southwest Iran. They were so afraid that the family did not even attend her grandmother’s shivah.

“Your religion, gender and political views from now on would determine your chances in life,” said Goel, who had grown up proud of her Iranian heritage, an ancient civilization which had liberated the Jews of Babylon, and a modern country where all religions lived in harmony until the fundamentalists took over.

Her parents felt that they had no choice but to send their three eldest children, daughters aged 19, 18 and 16, out of the country, despite the risk.

Goel recalled Nov. 1, 1982 when she and her two sisters clandestinely made their way to the Pakistan border and were smuggled across it.

All they had was the clothes they were wearing and enough money taped to their body to get by. “I remember my mother saying to us, ‘Go, make something out of your life.’” Her parents had been reassured that it would be a 20-minute walk and then they would be taken by car to the border.

In reality, they walked for 20 hours through a mountainous region, where militants lurked. Goel believes “a higher power” kept them safe.

The girls would spend eight months in Pakistan, moving from city to city, until they arrived in the capital, Karachi.

They bought Turkish passports on the black market and finally, on June 19, 1983, landed at Montreal’s Mirabel Airport where they claimed refugee status on the grounds of political persecution. They arrived without identification papers because they destroyed their Turkish passports.

The girls were detained for two weeks by Canadian immigration. Their first night of freedom was spent in a hostel, which cost $60, all the money they had left, she said.

“We did not know the language, had no family or friends here, and no money. It was total culture shock, and we had nowhere to live,” Goel said.

They were advised to go to an organization in Montreal that helped political refugees. They had until now kept the fact they were Jewish secret.

When they did reveal their religion to a social worker, she immediately directed them to JIAS.

“It was the first time after years that I felt proud to be Jewish. JIAS welcomed us with open arms. They showed kindness, patience and generosity,” Goel said.

JIAS (a Federation CJA agency, now merged into Agence Ometz) found them a Persian translator and an apartment, helped them with legal matters, and enrolled them in French classes.

“When we had no family, JIAS was our family. They guided us to become responsible citizens and part of the community,” she said.

The girls, however, did have to work, and they had some difficult years. Goel found odd jobs working in a mailroom, babysitting and, one that she liked, working in a bakery, which just happened to belong to the father of Sarah Hutman who was sitting in the audience. It paid $4.25 an hour; the sisters scrimped and got by.

Goel spent $1,000 on an English course, but she found it paid off. She eventually went to Toronto to study chiropractic, a field almost unheard of in Iran, but returned to Montreal in 1993 “to give back to the community that helped me.” She married and has two sons today.

Goel’s two younger brothers made it to Montreal with JIAS’s help in 1988, enabling them to avoid service in the Iran-Iraq war. Her mother, who died in 2000, would later follow them.

Her siblings today are healthy, well-educated, hard-working and contributing to society, said Goel, who noted that her name means “redeemer” in Hebrew.

There is one cloud in the story. Her father, whom she had not seen since she left Iran finally made it out of the country, arriving in Montreal on June 19, 2003, 20 years to the day the Goel sisters set foot in Canada.

He came for his son’s wedding, and met for the first time his five grandchildren.

“For 17 days he celebrated. He felt a peace in Montreal. Then he collapsed on the day of the wedding. His heart could not take such an abundance of joy,” Goel recalled.

She went with him to the Jewish General Hospital, where he died. She returned to the wedding, but in order not to disrupt the celebration, did not tell the guests of his death until they were leaving.

“I gave a speech without breaking down. Somehow I was again guided by a higher power.”

Her father was buried that night. She coped by saying, “May God’s will be done.”

Goel says her life experience has taught her not to feel sorry for herself, or ask “Why me?
“I came here with nothing…No matter what, I know things can always be worse. I don’t take anything for granted and I try to be grateful. I do not complain if it snows or if the economy is bad, because I came to this country with nothing.

“Genuine happiness comes from within. If you hold onto resentment, it is dangerous for your health. Forgiveness is the only way to heal ourselves.”

In addition to thanking the Montreal Jewish community, Goel paid tribute to her parents. “If not for their wisdom and courage, and all their sacrifices, I would not be here to tell my tale.”

As for her native country, she believes Iranians “will succeed in getting their freedom because history demonstrates that dictators do not last forever.”