Fatemeh Mahmoodi and Maryam Malek sat down with Hasibul Hasib after they saw him eating alone at a Thanksgiving dinner event at Saint Mary’s University last year.
“They both were very nice people and actually very good friends,” Hasib said of the two graduate students who died when a Ukrainian airliner crashed near Tehran, Iran, Wednesday morning.
After the event, Hasib saw Mahmoodi on campus a few times and they became good friends, but he didn’t the chance to reconnect with Malek.
Mahmoodi and Malek were were enrolled in the Halifax university's master of finance program.
“(Mahmoodi) was off to a very good start,” Hasib said.
“She always seemed very positive with a smile (on) all the time.”
Mahmoodi went home to Iran for the holidays and was going to start checking out things with Hasib around the city when she returned.
“Then when the whole Iran and U.S. thing started over the news, I wanted to contact her to see if everything was OK, but I never got a chance and then I saw the post on the SMU page,” Hasib said.
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In a Facebook post Wednesday evening, Saint Mary’s University confirmed Mahmoodi and Malek were two of the 176 people killed on Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752.
Dalhousie University student Masoumeh Ghavi, her younger sister Mandeih and Halifax dentist Dr. Sharieh Faghihi were also among the victims.
Ghavi had returned home to visit family over the holidays before she boarded the plane with her sister, who was to start school at Saint Mary's University. Faghihi was in Iran visiting her mother with her daughter, who returned to Halifax a few days earlier.
Shekoufeh Choupannejad, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Edmonton who worked in Halifax from 2011 to 2014 according to her LinkedIn profile, and her two daughters Sara and Saba Saadat were also killed in the incident.
Sara was a clinical psychology student who was going to continue her studies at Alliant International University in San Diego, while Saba was in her last semester at the University of Alberta and had begun applying to medical schools, according to CBC.
Among the victims were 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, three Germans and three Britons.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday that 138 passengers on Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 were connecting to Canada.
The total number of passengers with connections to Nova Scotia is still unclear.
On Thursday, Jan. 9, Trudeau told reporters that "the evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile. This may well have been unintentional."
Canada is working with its allies to determine the exact cause of the crash, he said.
"We have lost much in the loss of so many Canadian lives, so many families across this country grieving," Trudeau said. "We will be involved. We will offer all the expertise that we have to offer."
Supports and resources are available at Dalhousie University and Saint Mary's University for students, staff and faculty dealing with the tragedy.
Tina Struckless-Rowe, who taught Mahmoodi Zumba, will be hosting an open class at 10 a.m. at SMU on Saturday in her former student's honour.
"Her dancing was graceful and her smile was big. It will be difficult not seeing her beautiful face anymore," she said.
A memorial service is also to be held at the Dalhousie University Club from 2:30-4:30 p.m. on Saturday.
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