A father, Parviz, in Tehran just before she left to live in Canada almost twon years ago. She was last seen in Ontario January 4. An Iranian-Canadian woman, 26-year-old Shilan Shahbazian, has not been seen since January 4 and police and relatives are desperate for answers. “What has happened to her? Is she alive or not? We just want to find her,” Shahbazian’s mother, Layla Tanhaie, told the Canadian Broadcasting Co, (CBC) from Iran through a Kurdish translator.
The young woman left Iran and her family to emigrate to Canada less than two years ago as an asylum seeker. For the past year, she had been working at Kim’s Nails and Spa in Windsor, Ontario, just across the border from Detroit. Her family lives in Qorveh in Kurdistan province.
While the investigation is ongoing and there are no answers yet, the family fears the possibility she was the victim of a crime. (She was not active politically.) Her father, Parviz, last spoke with his daughter on the night of January 2, and said she seemed “peaceful without any stress.” “She was making jokes, and we were laughing.
She talked about the future. She said, ‘I’m working here not just for me. I want to build a new life for my self and then to help you,’” he said, adding, “the reason why she immigrated to Canada was safety. She was chasing safety and a new beginning…. We believed that before, but not anymore, to be honest.”
A cousin, Midya Morai, who is located in the United Kingdom, said he too spoke with Shahbazian around New Year’s and the conversation revolved around Shahbazian’s steps to improve her career and plans for the future, eventually to open up a business for herself. In at least 10 telephone calls since being in Canada, Morai said they only talked about her career plans and ways to improve her English and there were no signs of any problems.
Shahbazian’s mother, Layla Tanhaie, who is already coping with illnesses, said her daughter’s disappearance has impacted her health. At this point, she said any information about Shahbazian would soothe her. Helal, the missing woman’s uncle, said, “We have no one in Canada.
It’s not possible to travel there since Iran has no diplomatic relations with Canada. We can’t even pursue this matter through the Iranian government.” Shahbazian’s case recalls that of Elnaz Hajtamiri, another Iranian-born woman, who disappeared on the other side of Ontario in January 2022. In Hajtamiri’s case, she is known to have been kidnaped, dragged away in the snow in her bare feet.
Her ex-boyfriend has been charged in her kidnaping– and her murder, although no body has been found nor any other trace of what happened to her. Ontario provincial police now have two Iranian-born women to locate.
