DIDARAround 2017
A turning point at UQAM
Becoming involved in a difficult harassment case led me to think differently about community presence, accessibility and the importance of trusted support.
Our Story
How DIDAR took shape
DIDAR grew out of years of community accompaniment, student support, mutual aid and one idea that became increasingly important to me: people should not have to navigate difficult situations or unfamiliar systems alone.
What began with individual acts of support gradually became a network in which people shared information, experience, time and practical help with one another.
The story at a glance
DIDAR grew from individual acts of support into a wider network of community care, shared experience and practical solidarity.
Parts of this story discuss harassment and difficult experiences. Feel free to read at your own pace.
The Turning Point
Around 2017, my relationship with the community changed
Until around 2017, I had relatively little connection with Montréal’s Iranian community. Most of my social and professional circle was made up of Québécois and Maghrebi friends and colleagues, and I did not see myself as an active member of the Iranian community.
That changed when I became involved in supporting people affected by a long-standing sexual-harassment situation at UQAM. I helped initiate and follow the complaint process, connected with people who had experienced similar situations and with witnesses, and accompanied those affected through the process.
The experience made me realize how many Iranian students had studied at UQAM over the years without my ever knowing them. That realization stayed with me.
I began asking myself a simple question:
if those students had known there was a more experienced Iranian person at the university
whom they could approach in a difficult moment, might some of them have felt less alone?
From then on, I made a conscious decision to be more visible and accessible as an Iranian member of the university community, especially to students who were new to the university or to life in Canada.
Building a Support Network
One specific problem became a broader community network
Before the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, a sharp decline in the value of the Iranian rial suddenly placed many Iranian international students under serious financial pressure.
One Iranian student had already begun speaking with the university about taking the particular circumstances of Iranian students into account. I became involved from there.
I gradually began finding Iranian international students one by one, reaching out to them and connecting them with one another. What began as an effort to address a specific problem slowly became a broader support network.
The support was never limited to one area. Depending on the person and the situation, it could include:
- University administration and institutional communication
- Financial difficulties and requests for tuition relief or exemptions
- Connecting students with university services and resources
- Support around discrimination or problems in the university environment
- Work and everyday life in Canada
- Family or personal difficulties
- Finding appropriate healthcare or community resources
- Emotional presence during difficult periods
- Academic help when a student’s field was close to my own expertise
- Sometimes simply listening when someone needed not to feel alone
90+
Today, this network includes more than 90 people with different ages, academic fields and social, cultural and economic backgrounds.
For me, it is no longer simply a student group. Even today, if I happen to meet a newly arrived Iranian student or newcomer, I usually try to connect them with this network so they can benefit from shared experience and information instead of having to learn everything from zero and alone.
Woman, Life, Freedom
The network expanded during another difficult period
After the death of Jina Mahsa Amini and the beginning of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, the nature of my community involvement changed again.
During that period, I tried, within my capacity, to support people who were directly affected by events in Iran, repression, concerns for family members, and the psychological and social consequences of what was happening.
I organized two events at the university. The first was Campus Rally for Iran, part of an international movement held simultaneously at more than 200 universities around the world. I organized the second event for International Women’s Day, in the context of the emerging Woman, Life, Freedom movement.
I organized these events to create a space for empathy and solidarity among Iranian students living in Montréal — a space where, during those difficult days, they could feel less alone, be there for one another, and share their worries, emotional burden, and the pain of being far from their families while following what was happening in Iran with others who were going through similar experiences.
These activities connected me with more international students and helped expand the support network further.
Over time, the university also became aware of the network and the experience that had developed around it. I was later invited to apply some of what I had learned more broadly with non-Iranian international students: identifying needs, helping create support networks and connecting students with useful resources and possible solutions.
Something that had begun entirely voluntarily, from a human need,
had gradually become a model that could be useful beyond one community.
Pass It Forward
The principle that shaped the network
From the beginning, whenever someone wanted to thank me for helping them, I would tell them that they did not need to do anything for me in return.
I would tell them that the cost of receiving help was simple: one day, when someone else needed their help, they should help that person.
Where that idea came from
I learned this way of thinking years ago, when I was living in India, from someone who is now one of my closest friends and part of my chosen family. He helped me in many ways, without ever expecting anything in return.
When I asked him why he was helping me so much, he explained that someone had once given him significant help and that he had never been able to repay that same person. So instead, he had decided to pass the help on to the next person who needed it.
You do not always have to pay help back to the person who helped you.
You can pass it forward and keep it moving through the community.
I tried to build that culture into the student network as well. Today, what I value perhaps even more than the creation of the network itself is that its members are not simply recipients of support.
Many are ready to help someone else — sometimes someone who is not their friend, not in their academic field and not even from the same linguistic background.
The network has become a space where people share experience, information, time, contacts and practical support, passing help from one person to the next.
I am deeply proud of that network and of the people who make it what it is.
The Path to DIDAR
From one experience of accompaniment to a wider community vision
Later
A financial crisis affecting students
The rapid fall of the Iranian rial created serious difficulties for international students and became the starting point for a more organized student support network.
90+ members
A growing network of mutual support
Students with different backgrounds began sharing information, resources, experience and practical support with one another.
2022 onward
Woman, Life, Freedom
Community events, solidarity work and a wider circle of international students expanded both the network and the lessons learned from it.
Beyond one group
Supporting international students more broadly
Experience developed within the Iranian student community began informing work with students from other backgrounds as well.
DIDAR
Giving the idea a lasting structure
DIDAR grows from the idea that community knowledge, support, culture and connection become stronger when they circulate rather than remaining centred on one person.
Community Work in Practice
The experience that helped shape DIDAR
Newcomers & International Students
Orientation to Québec and Canadian systems, academic and institutional navigation, mentoring, access to resources and practical support during the transition into a new social and educational environment.
Mentoring & Trusted Networks
Connecting people with experienced students, researchers, professionals, volunteers, mentors and community members who can offer relevant knowledge or lived experience.
Employment & Professional Integration
CV and application support, professional communication, networking, job-search guidance and connections to employment organizations and professional resources.
Practical Accompaniment
Support during administrative, institutional and healthcare processes, including preparing questions, understanding procedures and accompanying people when a trusted support person is needed.
Mutual Aid & Resource Sharing
Connecting people who can help one another, sharing practical information and redistributing useful household items and resources to community members who need them.
Culture & Community Connection
Cultural activities, community gatherings, book fairs and solidarity events that create opportunities for belonging, connection and reciprocal support.
Support During Difficult Situations
Practical accompaniment, communication support and referral for people navigating harassment, discrimination, violence or other vulnerable situations, while connecting them with appropriate specialized services.
Community Needs & Advocacy
Identifying recurring barriers, documenting community concerns and communicating patterns to institutions, organizations and relevant decision-makers.
Community Milestones
Some of the activities that shaped the idea
90+
members in the student support network
4
Nowruz community events
2
community book fairs
2
student solidarity gatherings
Cultural and social activities were never separate from community support. They often became places where people met, built trust, shared information, found mentors and developed relationships that continued long after the event itself.
What This Work Taught Me
Community support is more than information
People need trusted connections
Information is more useful when someone also knows whom they can ask, where they can turn and who can help them understand the next step.
Support should strengthen autonomy
The goal is not to create dependence on one person or organization, but to help people understand systems and build their own networks.
Support should circulate
Someone who receives support today may later become a mentor, volunteer, resource person or trusted contact for someone else.
At the centre of this approach is connection:
connecting people to information connecting people to services connecting people to institutions connecting people to opportunities and most importantly, connecting people to one anotherOur Role
Connection, navigation and accompaniment — not a replacement for professional services
The community work behind DIDAR occupies a space between information, accompaniment, mentoring, networking, community organizing, intercultural communication and practical mutual aid.
DIDAR does not present itself as a provider of professional immigration, legal, medical, psychological or social-work advice.
When specialized intervention is required, the role of DIDAR is to help people identify and connect with appropriate qualified professionals and organizations.
What DIDAR can provide:
orientation, resource identification, referral, mentoring,
practical assistance, communication support, community connections,
accompaniment and follow-up.
Why DIDAR
Giving a culture of mutual support a more durable structure
Over time, individual acts of assistance revealed something larger: a community already contains knowledge, experience, skills, relationships and resources that become much more powerful when they are connected.
DIDAR is an effort to help those connections grow: a place where people can find support when they need it, contribute when they are able, preserve culture and memory, learn and create, and participate more fully in the communities around them.
The goal is not to place one person at the centre of everyone’s needs. It is to help build structures through which knowledge, support and relationships can circulate — so that someone who receives help today may become a source of support for someone else tomorrow.
DIDAR is built on a simple principle: support should circulate.
DIDAR
Roots · Growth · Connection
Learn more about DIDAR’s community support, current programs and the three pillars that guide its development.
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