Mina Dickinson held her daughter close in the back of an army truck as it rumbled to the Pakistani border.
Her lips softly touched her four-year-old's ear, as Dickinson whispered the story of Tahireh, an Iranian woman of Baha'i faith who more than 150 years ago renounced her veil and claimed a new age for women. At her execution Tahireh cried, "You can stop me, but you can't stop the emancipation of women."
The tale gave Dickinson courage. Four years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Dickinson needed all the strength she could muster in her second attempt to escape from Iran. Widowed and of Baha'i Faith herself, with the return of Ayatollah Khomeini, Dickinson and her daughter, Mojdeh, had scant prospects for a good life in their home country.
Baha'i were not permitted to attend university. Dickinson had lost her job as a result of her faith and was living in a two-bedroom apartment with her parents. The family held a meeting to discuss Dickinson's future. Her two brothers and sister supported her decision to flee the country. So Dickinson kissed her parents goodbye, not knowing it would be the last time she saw them.
Five days later, Dickinson was a United Nations refugee in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city. In 1984, she arrived in Langley, B.C. to be close to her cousin. Dickinson had $100 in her pocket. Twenty-two years ago, the family moved to Squamish, where Dickinson now works as a child and youth counsellor.
It was also around the time she moved to Squamish that Dickinson decided she wanted to give back.
"Especially, I wanted to help women," she said.
She joined a determined group forging Squamish's first transition house for women. Since then Dickinson has rolled up her sleeves in many Howe Sound Women's Centre initiatives, including donating time as a director and president on the organization's board.
"In a way the revolution was to my benefit," she said, reflecting on her achievements - the most recent being receiving her child and youth counsellor degree at the age of 55.
On Saturday, April 14, Dickinson plans to share her story at the Howe Sound Women's Centre 30th Anniversary Gala. Held at the West Coast Railway Heritage Park's CN Roundhouse and Conference Centre, Dickinson will take centre stage with the founder and namesake of the Stephen Lewis Foundation - a charity that provides care and support to women living with HIV and AIDS in Africa - and Vancouver-based lawyer Katrina Pacey, who donates her services to Pivot Legal Society.
The event starts at 6:30 p.m. VIP tickets (chairs in the first four rows) cost $100 with general admission for $75. For more information visit www.hswc.ca.
