Please take 5 minutes to send an urgent email and call (sample messages below) to demand that endangered Afghan women's rights activist Farzana Adell’s "Group of Five" application be approved immediately. After last fall’s potentially lethal rejection of Farzana’s application for protection in Canada, she submitted a new application in October. But in early January, her third country visa expires, and the risk of Farzana being forcibly returned to torture and death in Afghanistan increases.

As a persecuted women’s rights activist, Hazara minority, and Ismaili Muslim – a combination that makes her a priority target of the Taliban – Adell Ghadiya had applied for a Temporary Resident Permit for Protection (TRP) given that she meets all the qualifications under the humanitarian program for Afghan refugees. It is a perfectly legitimate route for refugees to get to Canada (one often employed successfully by the Rural Refugee Rights Network), but Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)  failed to read her application materials and issued a boilerplate rejection usually sent to applicants for a temporary resident visa, a document that is time-limited and premised on the likelihood that the visitor will return to their country of origin.

But Farzana did not apply for a temporary resident visa. She applied for a TRP. 

In October, Farzana's Canadian support community applied for a Group of Five sponsorship as part of a newly announced time- and space-limited program. Farzana does not have the luxury of time. With processing times stretching into years, she could be disappeared before a decision is made on her strong application. That's why it must be prioritized as extremely urgent and approved. 

Farzana’s case symbolizes how little value the lives of Afghan women have for the Canadian government, which had no trouble getting almost 100,000 Ukrainians here in 9 months but has brought just over 20,000 Afghans here in 15 months. Minister Fraser must approve Farzana’s application immediately before she winds up in a Taliban dungeon or six feet under.

Farzana’s work building girls’ schools and maternity hospitals and starting educational programs drew significant Taliban threats through her years in Afghanistan, resulting in a 2013 beating so severe that she was left for dead, suffering pain to this day from a leg injury and two ruptured discs sustained in that beating. Her work as Chief of Staff for the UN High Commission on Women from 2016-2017 also places her in the gun sights of the Taliban.

In addition to over 36,000 supporters on a change.org petition, Farzana enjoys a strong support community of women in Ottawa, who speak with her on a regular basis and send money to keep her going in a third country where she is in hiding due to fears of being swept up in frequent street roundups and forcibly returned to her death in Afghanistan.

Despite her disappointments, Adell Ghadiya feels hopeful that pressure from Canadians will make a difference. “I really believe that if Mr. Fraser read my file, he would approve it,” she says. “I have seen so much love and kindness from Canadians supporting me and so many other Afghan people seeking safety, and I put my faith and trust in them to continue speaking up so that we can find the protection we need.”

For more information contact tasc@web.ca or (613) 300-9536.

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SAMPLE EMAIL (feel free to add a personal statement and ALSO cc your own MP)

To: marci.ien@parl.gc.ca, Jenna.sudds@parl.gc.ca, minister-ministre@swc-cfc.gc.ca

CC: IRCC.Minister-Ministre.IRCC@cic.gc.ca, Sean.Fraser@parl.gc.ca, Minister@cic.gc.ca, Marie-France.Lalonde@parl.gc.ca, tasc@web.ca, ahmed.hussen@parl.gc.ca, Gary.Anandasangaree@parl.gc.ca, yasir.naqvi@parl.gc.ca, Tom.Kmiec@parl.gc.ca, francis.drouin@parl.gc.ca, sukh.dhaliwal@parl.gc.ca, michael.chong@parl.gc.ca, alexis.brunelle-duceppe@parl.gc.ca, Yvan.baker@parl.gc.ca, Pam.Damoff@parl.gc.ca, maninder.sidhu@parl.gc.ca, kerry-lynne.findlay@parl.gc.ca, alex.ruff@parl.gc.ca, Salma.Zahid@parl.gc.ca, arif.virani@parl.gc.ca

Dear Ministers Ien and Fraser,

I am writing to ask that you immediately and urgently read and approve the Group of Five application for Farzana Adell Ghadiya, with whose case you are very familiar. Indeed, you have been asked questions about her case by major media outlets, and many MPs are familiar with her dire situation as well. 

I was outraged to learn that Canada had rejected Farzana’s earlier application for protection without even reading it.  

This horrible decision was covered by CTV National News (https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/prominent-afghan-women-s-rights-activist-denied-refugee-admission-into-canada-upsetting-sponsors-1.6106996 the Ottawa Citizen (https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ottawa-advocates-plead-for-intervention-after-afghan-rights-workers-application-to-come-to-canada-is-rejected and the Toronto Star (https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2022/10/02/this-afghan-activist-is-fleeing-the-taliban-canada-just-rejected-her-visa-request-because-it-didnt-believe-shed-go-home.html )

Time is running out for Farzana, whose third country permit runs out in January, placing her at vastly increased risk of deportation to her torture and death under the Taliban. But simply marking her file as urgent is not enough.

Farzana’s application for an Early Admission Temporary Resident Permit had been sitting on the Minister’s desk, flagged as “urgent” for many months before it was rejected.

By urgency, we mean that this must be resolved in the next days or week. 

In addition to the strong support Farzana enjoys with her Group of 5 Sponsorship supporters, Farzana merits entry to Canada as a women’s rights leader, a human rights defender, and a member of a persecuted religious group and ethnic minority (she is Hazara and an Ismaili Muslim). Farzana is also unable to access health care where she now lives: she is a severe diabetic with unstable vision, stomach and kidney pains, and ongoing physical and emotional trauma from beatings she endured at the hands of the Taliban. 

As one of more than 36,000 people who have signed a petition in Farzana's support, I urge both of you as the Minister responsible for women's rights and Immigration Minister to prioritize and expedite the approval of Farzana’s new application. After the ridiculous and unmerited rejection she suffered earlier, any further delay is inexcusable when the file itself can be read in less than 30 minutes and the threats to Farzana's safety continue to mount.

In August 2021, Farzana’s apartment was gutted and the windows shot out. There is no future for her in her former country: She writes: “The Taliban knows who I am, and they have my entire file from the Presidential Palace now. I don’t leave my room now, except to buy food on the corner, as I am so afraid they will find me. I have been beaten by the Taliban before I fled my country. They know who I am and know that I am a women’s rights advocate. I am not healthy and worried that I could not take care of myself because I cannot leave my room safely. I cannot build a life or get healthy under these circumstances, and I am at risk of death if found. They will kill me if I enter Afghanistan under any circumstances.”

The clock is ticking. 

Other Afghans have been killed waiting to come to Canada. Your inaction places Farzana at great risk.

Her life’s work  for women's rights and gender equality – has placed her life at risk. The least we as Canadians can do is grant her a permit and welcome her to Ottawa. Failure to do so will have tragic consequences for her.

Thank you
Name
City, Town

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SAMPLE PHONE MESSAGES
Marci Ien
Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth
Telephone: 613-992-1377, 416-972-9749

PLEASE only leave respectful messages. If you get the constituency office saying “this is not an issue for our office," gently remind them that it is, because the federal government has committed itself to women's rights and gender-based analysis, and that is an issue that affects every office,

Hi, my name is XXXXX and I'm calling from TOWN, PROVINCE. I’m calling to ask that you take whatever measures are necessary to reverse the decision to reject Farzana Adell Ghadiya’s temporary resident permit. This can be done by immediately approving her Group of Five sponsorship. She is a high-profile Afghan women's rights activist whose life is at risk from the Taliban, and she qualifies to come here as a women's rights defender and a member of a persecuted ethnic and religious minority. There is a support community waiting for her in Ottawa. Surely, since your office is associated with women's rights, it is within your mandate to speak with the Immigration Minister to urgently approve  Farzana’s application. Your government prides itself as one that supports women's rights, and one way to give that meaning is to help save the life of this very courageous women's rights defender. Please act before it's too late."

ADDITIONAL PHONE MESSAGE FOR SEAN FRASER, IMMIGRATION MINISTER

Immigration Minister Sean Fraser’s office (leave a message if you can, even though the answering machine encourages you not to!): 613-992-6022, AND toll-free: 1-844-641-5886   

Hi, my name is XXXXX and I'm calling from TOWN, PROVINCE. I’m calling to ask that you take whatever measures are necessary to reverse the decision to reject Farzana Adell Ghadiya’s temporary resident permit, including immediately approving her Group of Five sponsorship. She is a high-profile Afghan women's rights activist whose life is at risk from the Taliban, and she qualifies to come here as a women's rights defender and a member of a persecuted ethnic and religious minority. There is a support community waiting for her in Ottawa, but she needs a permit on an urgent basis. As Immigration Minister you have the discretion to issue her a permit. Please act before it's too late.