'Now we know each other better': Winnipeg's Iranian community grew from dozens to thousands

A restaurant in Winnipeg has become a meeting place for the city's small but growing Iranian diaspora — and, after a fatal plane crash this week stole some of their sons and daughters, a place for mourning. 

"All my customers they were coming in, 'Did you hear the news?' 'Do you know anybody in that plane?'" said Maryam Nadmeh, inside the Tehran Cafe on Pembina Highway.

"They were telling me who they knew."

Among the 176 victims of the Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 that crashed outside of Tehran Wednesday, 63 were Canadians.

Winnipeg's small but growing Iranian community has been shattered after learning at least eight of their members died when a passenger jet crashed in Tehran, Iran, on Wednesday. 

It is now believed the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile, according to Canadian and American intelligence.

Closer to home, the loss of life is devastating to the tight-knit Iranian community in Winnipeg. 

'Very few' Iranians at first

Around 30 years ago, Winnipeg's Iranian community numbered in the dozens, real estate agent Ali Charmand said. Statistics Canada said 1,900 Winnipeggers identify as belonging to an Iranian ethnicity, as of the 2016 census, but community members say it is closer to 3,000 to 4,000 people, including those on temporary visas and international students.

Charmand arrived in Winnipeg in 1989 with hopes of a better life for his family, but he was lonely at first.

There were "very few" Iranians, he said. "We didn't know anybody. A couple people would show up, like under a hundred, but now there are more."

Today, Iranians gather together for holidays and meals. They connect regularly through social media, where newcomers ask the more experienced Winnipeggers about finding work or classes to take. 

"Now it's better," Charmand said of living in Winnipeg. "Now we know each other better."

The Iranian population in Winnipeg is usually university-educated professionals because the province seeks job-ready immigrants, he said.

Nineteen years ago, Nadmeh remembers settling into a one-bedroom apartment on Corydon Avenue with few possessions to her name. She figures there was maybe 1,000 Iranians in Winnipeg back then. 

Since then, the Iranian Community of Manitoba has thrived, hosting functions like a summer potluck and Yalda Night to mark the longest and darkest night of the year.

Nadmeh went from opening a catering business for Iranian food, to starting a grocery store and then a restaurant as well. She feels she knows just about every Iranian in Winnipeg now.

"I don't have my parents here [in Winnipeg], so they're like mostly my best friends," she said. "My friends are like my family, I guess."

The growth in the city's Iranian population is credited, in part, to a former professor, University of Manitoba president David Barnard said.

"I think it's largely the result of personal contacts by some folks," he said. "One of our senior, very well-respected faculty members, Dr. Lotfollah Shafai, in engineering, some years ago invited folks that he knew in Iran to come to Manitoba to study and to engage in research," he said.

"In the intervening years, I know it's become more widespread than just in engineering."

A group for Iranian students at the University of Manitoba is also active today. The U of M counted 209 students from Iran, according to 2018 statistics. 

A graduate student in engineering, Amir Shirzadi has lived in Winnipeg for a year and a half. His life is as normal as any Canadian, he said. He meets friends at Tim Hortons and goes to parties.

He relishes his freedom in Canada. In Iran, he'd have to worry about what he says.

"I feel comfortable, I have freedom here and people are nice," he said. "After that crash, every Iranian appreciates Canadians and Canada."

Shirzadi said the community is well reflected in the school's classrooms and laboratories. He is one of dozens of Iranians studying engineering at the university.

"You don't need to actually look for Iranians — you often see them everywhere," he said.

"One of our concerns is that in engineering we are always talking Persian," Shirzadi said, referring to Iran's predominant language. "Our English is not going to improve because we're always talking Persian."