Ghanimat Ajdari, a 36-year-old PhD student at University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, was one of the 176 killed in PS752 flight which was shot down by IRGC on January 8, 2020. She was full of life and passionate about environment. Ghanimat was accepted to PhD program of Natural Resources at Tehran University but she was passed over by one of Islamic Republic officials’ child! She spent years following her dreams and was offered scholarship at Guelph. She arrived at Ontario in September 2019!
Her project was focused on creating new laws and policies in international level to protect the environment by employing the help of indigenous people. Her professor at Guelph describes Ghanimat as a firecracker full of energy. “She was able to command such attention from people, even though she was a tiny person, not because of her knowledge in science but because of her extreme passion to protect nature.”
But IRGC and Islamic Republic didn’t stop at murdering Ukrainian Airlines passengers. After lying for 3 days and denying any involvement in shooting down the plane, they started threatening the victims’ families. The families were summoned to MOIS or IRGC Intelligence, threatened to be raped! Several of them were told, “You’ll have the same fate as Pouya Bakhtiari’s father.” Manouchehr Bakhtiari has been arrested twice, held in solitary confinement and threatened for months, just because he wanted justice for his son who was killed in November 2019 uprising.
The tombstones of some of the victims were also desecrated by regime’s oppressive forces. Siavash and Sara’s headstones were broken off and taken away!
On PS752 anniversary, families were threatened not to hold any ceremonies, unless they’re coordinated with the “Basij or IRGC forces.” Some who wanted to hold anniversaries on tombs of victims were told, “How do you know we have buried your child here. Did you see the body yourself?” After the senseless tragedy happened, families couldn’t tolerate to ID the bodies!
Islamic Republic continued to torture the families by announcing 127 Iranians who were killed as “martyrs,” without asking families permission. Meanwhile, regime’s propaganda machine has been busy with cooking up lies and spreading them through their whole network in different languages, to the point that everybody would believe the lie!
Ghanimat Ajdari’s family was no exception to the psychological tortures by the regime! State-controlled media published a piece on January 13, 2020, in which Ghanimat’s father has said, “We know it was an accident. We forgive the people responsible.”
Immediately after the piece was spread through the network, Ghanimat’s sister participated in interviews with BBC Persian and Iran International, denouncing the regime, calling the incident “criminal.” Azemat Ajdari who had a lump in her throat while speaking about her sister, said, “They are responsible for this crime. We’re not looking for a person who’s responsible. It’s the whole system that has been lying to us for 40 years. Incompetent people have taken positions leading to the crimes we see.”
To counter the truth spoken by families and cover up their crimes, the propaganda network has started a new line of story which gives the situation a whole new picture. They claimed Canadian government has threatened victims’ families of not renewing their visas if they don’t condemn the Islamic Republic for committing this heinous crime. However, the truth was, the victims’ families were banned from leaving Iran to participate in the funeral processions of victims. Canadian government has issued emergency visas for the families but Islamic Republic harassed them not allowing them to leave.
They claimed Canada was threatening the families, the same government which has given the families some comfort by pushing for the truth behind the incident and building a memorial for the victims. The same people who have named a scholarship in their PhD program in honor of Ghanimat Ajdari and Milad Ghasemi. Ironic, isn’t it?!
