Learning to create one’s own future
Khudadad spent the majority of his life to date as an Afghan refugee in Pakistan with his family. Growing up, he says he realized that the status of refugee served as an invisible but constant barrier. Administrative problems, uncertainty, stereotypes: all reminders that even having grown up there, he would never be fully at home.
But very soon, education came to offer new possibilities. Inspired by his father and by the values of the Ismaili community (a branch of Shiite Islam), and facing exclusion due to his refugee status, Khudadad became aware that education “was not just a means to acquire knowledge, but the one avenue where [he] could still carve out possibilities.” “It became the place where I felt I could reclaim agency, despite everything I could not control,” he says.
Khudadad received a bachelor’s of nursing at the Aga Khan University in Pakistan, followed by a master’s in health policy and management. He says he chose nursing because he saw that through it, it was possible to bring significant change for himself and his family. Despite his degree, however, his status as a refugee prevented him from getting the clinical experience he needed to get ahead in his profession, forcing him to return to Afghanistan.
There, Khudadad worked within a health-care system weakened by war, an experience that upended his understanding of health care. He became aware that while health care saves lives, it’s public policy that determines who can access it and under what circumstances. While doing his master’s training, he looked at the trauma care system in Kabul and formed relationships with members of the public health ministry that facilitated a policy dialogue around strengthening an injury surveillance system in the city’s trauma centres. His work was supported by funding from the United States’ National Institutes of Health through the Johns Hopkins–led Afghanistan–Pakistan International Collaborative Injury Research Program. However, this funding was suspended after the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
Canada and uOttawa as an anchor
Arriving in Canada in 2022 as an international student, Khudadad began a doctorate co-supervised by Ian Pike of UBC and Audrey Giles of uOttawa. He discovered an environment in which his background wasn’t seen as an obstacle, but as a boon: “uOttawa offers a unique space where interdisciplinary research is valued and where my lived experience could finally inform my academic work rather than be sidelined.”
“What helped most was the strong sense of community I felt even before I landed,” he says. In fact, Khudadad was closely assisted by Giles and her team in applying for admission and scholarships, and received their help in finding housing, too.
In his doctoral thesis, Khudadad is looking at unintentional home injuries in British Columbia, particularly the way that social, spatial and structural factors affect risk of injury. This includes conducting participatory research among recent Afghan immigrants to Canada.
“Newcomers and refugees are disproportionally affected by certain injuries, due to housing conditions, migratory paths and structural barriers,” Khudadad says. His work seeks to shine light on more equitable, culturally appropriate injury prevention strategies in the province.
Khudadad says that the scholarships he has received allow him to produce rigorous research grounded in equity and oriented towards concrete benefits for communities too often marginalized in public policy. The funding recognition also represents a symbolic change: “Above all, this recognition shows me that I am no longer navigating this path alone. There are people and institutions who believe in my ability to contribute meaningfully, and their confidence continues to propel me forward.”
Redefining the place of international students
“Canadian universities have so much to gain by supporting students like Umerdad. The University of Ottawa’s support changed his life.”
Audrey Giles
— Professor in the School of Human Kinetics
According to Giles, Khudadad’s exceptional journey brings into question certain narratives that present international students and immigrants in general as a burden. There’s no doubt that Khudadad, a part-time nurse in a psychiatry department, a researcher funded through Ontario Graduate Scholarship and MITACS while working on a project supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, a uOttawa Brain and Mind Research Institute fellow and a co-investigator on major projects, is making a significant contribution to Canadian society.
“Umerdad shows that these narratives are simply false,” says Giles. “Canadian universities have so much to gain by supporting students like him. The University of Ottawa’s support changed his life.”
With his brothers and sisters recently arriving in Canada as permanent residents and his parents (and dog!) putting the finishing touches on their application to join him, Khudadad and his Canadian wife are expecting their first baby in May, shortly after defending his other baby: his doctoral thesis!