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WINNIPEG—A foreign student studying at the University of Winnipeg is going to be allowed to stay in Canada.
Hazim Ismail is gay, which is illegal in his home country of Malaysia, and is also an atheist, which is not illegal but is frowned upon in the Muslim nation.
He says a story about him setting up a GoFundMe page in order to keep going to university in Canada ended up outing him against his will in the Malaysian media.
He applied for refugee status, saying he feared for his own safety if he were to return home, and on Tuesday he was granted it.
Last year, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak made headlines for comparing the LGBT community to the terrorism group ISIS, calling them both enemies of Islam.
Ismail says it has been a troubling time, and it doesn’t help that his family is not on his side.
“They disowned me and cut off my funding for me being out,” he says. “They cut off communications. I have a little brother and I can’t talk to him or Skype with him or anything anymore. I hope that they’ll come around, but probably not anytime soon.”
Ismail came to Canada just over three years ago to study psychology at the Winnipeg university, saying the study in Malaysia is too influenced by religious dogma.
“If you go to them and say, ‘Hey, I’m gay, I’m having a conflict with my identity,’ they’re going to refer you to a rehabilitation centre to ‘correct’ you,” he said. “That’s not a place where I wanted to pursue psychology, but I would love to get change rolling with how psychology is rolled out there.”
More on thestar.com
WINNIPEG—A foreign student studying at the University of Winnipeg is going to be allowed to stay in Canada.
Hazim Ismail is gay, which is illegal in his home country of Malaysia, and is also an atheist, which is not illegal but is frowned upon in the Muslim nation.
He says a story about him setting up a GoFundMe page in order to keep going to university in Canada ended up outing him against his will in the Malaysian media.
He applied for refugee status, saying he feared for his own safety if he were to return home, and on Tuesday he was granted it.
Last year, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak made headlines for comparing the LGBT community to the terrorism group ISIS, calling them both enemies of Islam.
Ismail says it has been a troubling time, and it doesn’t help that his family is not on his side.
“They disowned me and cut off my funding for me being out,” he says. “They cut off communications. I have a little brother and I can’t talk to him or Skype with him or anything anymore. I hope that they’ll come around, but probably not anytime soon.”
Ismail came to Canada just over three years ago to study psychology at the Winnipeg university, saying the study in Malaysia is too influenced by religious dogma.
“If you go to them and say, ‘Hey, I’m gay, I’m having a conflict with my identity,’ they’re going to refer you to a rehabilitation centre to ‘correct’ you,” he said. “That’s not a place where I wanted to pursue psychology, but I would love to get change rolling with how psychology is rolled out there.”
More on thestar.com
