On a cloudy Sunday in Tehran, Fareed Arasteh married the love of his life, hoping she would join him in Ottawa before he finished his doctorate program at Carleton.
Anxious, as he packed his bags before his flight back to Iran, Arasteh asked his fiancée Maral Gorginpour’s cousin Golnaz Shaverdi for help. Shaverdi, an engineer who lives a couple hours away in Montreal, was a welcome distraction for Arasteh—“a bundle of nerves” before his big day, she said. Together, they found the “perfect suit for his perfect wedding.”
Arasteh would never return back to Ottawa.
Three days after his wedding, the biology student was among 176 passengers and crew members—57 of them Canadian citizens and 138 headed to Canada—on board Ukrainian flight PS752 en route to Kyiv on Jan. 8.
All 176 of them were killed shortly after take-off from Tehran. At the age of 32, Arasteh was one of them.
“But he’s not here anymore. Now I’m just trying to put myself back together again.”
Samanfar and Arasteh became fast pals after mutual friends introduced the two in Tehran. A few years later, they reconnected when Arasteh joined Carleton in August last fall.
“It was like the ideal situation,” said Samanfar, who also studied at Carleton. “We were fulfilling our dreams by working hard, and living with a friend comfortably.”
Arasteh excitedly spoke with Samanfar after his wedding, sending him pictures, and letting him know he’d be home on Wednesday.
On Tuesday night, Samanfar was about to go to bed when he texted Arasteh to let him know he arrived in Kyiv. He thought he’d pick his friend up from the airport the next day.
His friend never texted back.
“Those hours were the hardest,” said Samanfar. “When I saw the news, my heart sank. I didn’t want to believe it, even though I knew at the back of my mind that Fareed was on that plane.”
“I kept refreshing pages. Finally, his name showed up.”
Arasteh’s friends and family remember him as a soft-spoken, genuinely kind, and thoughtful person with a generous soul. He maintained long, beautiful friendships, taking good care of everyone around him and always checking up on them, they said.
In interviews with the Charlatan, several of those closest to Arasteh broke down in tears recalling memories they shared.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do anymore. I don’t know what to say to anyone,” said Arasteh’s wife Gorginpour, mewling in a brief conversation over the phone. “We had such big dreams and aspirations. It’s hard to even talk about any of it without crying like this.”
“I just want people to know how great my Fareed is.”
Salman Soltanian can’t quite put a finger to what country song Arasteh and him listened to most back in Tehran. “There were so, so many of them,” he said, cracking a small smile through his tears.
“He loved photography and Shania Twain,” said Azad Heidari, Arasteh’s friend from the University of Tehran.
Kiarash Pedram and Jaber Rahimi were right next to Arasteh when he found out he was accepted into the competitive molecular genetics doctorate program at Carleton. “It was so exciting and so happy to watch him,” said Pedram.
Biology professor Ashkan Golshani, who was supervising Arasteh’s PhD, said he expected big things from his star student who always asked deep questions.
Arasteh joined Carleton’s molecular genetics lab after finishing a master’s degree in biotechnology from Iran. His research—identifying and characterizing genes that affect quality control of the gene expression—was a large part of a $200,000-funded project, working towards a cure for cancer.
“He didn’t just do fantastic work himself, he helped others around him, helping them work hard as well,” said Golshani.
Arasteh hoped to graduate in 2023.
A vigil in his honour will be held in the Tory foyer Wednesday, Jan. 15 from 2 to 3 p.m. Condolence books will be available for members of the community to sign.
Iran had denied its involvement in the crash for several days before admitting it “unintentionally” shot down the Ukrainian airliner on Jan. 11 by “human error,” following weeks of tensions with the U.S.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called for financial compensation for the victims’ families and a thorough investigation. “We need to make sure those in mourning get the justice they deserve,” he said at the University of Alberta, one of multiple vigils held across Canada since the crash.
Featured image provided by Fareed Arasteh’s family.
