Tribute to The Honourable Mobina S. B. Jaffer

Honourable senators, most Honourable Senator Jaffer, time travel with me back some 20 years. You’re a researcher at York University, and you got a small grant to work with Afghan women who fled the Taliban to build their lives in Canada. With them, you’re organizing a leadership capacity-building workshop. These Afghan women - soon to be Canadians - ask you to bring women parliamentarians to talk with them about how to be leaders in Canada, so you reach out with an invitation to a long list of members of Parliament, or MPs, and senators. Two MPs and one senator said yes. That one from the Red Chamber was Senator Mobina Jaffer.
When I gave her the time options for one hour on the program, she asked, “How long is the program? How long is the workshop?” And upon learning that intergenerational Afghan women and girls were meeting for two full days at the university then travelling to Ottawa for a day of parliamentary meetings, she promptly said, “I’ll be there.” When I persisted in trying to confirm a full hour of her time, she said, “Let me be clear: I’m coming, and I’m staying for the whole time - this is too important.”
Not only did Senator Jaffer stay with us for every moment of those two days, she travelled with us on the train from Toronto to Ottawa, and, as we continued to capacity build en route, she took me aside and told me what needed to happen that night when we got to Ottawa.
And so at the Ottawa hotel that evening when all of us were encircled together preparing our parliamentary agenda, we followed Mobina’s advice. The non-Afghan women stepped back. The Afghan women stepped forward to signify that the leaders’ voices the next day on Parliament Hill would be those of Afghan women.
I am so grateful for the seven years I’ve had in this chamber with you, Mobina, for your wisdom, your generosity, your courage and your countless kindnesses to me and so many others. Dear Mobina, thank you, meegwetch, asante.
Transcript: sencanada.ca/e...
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bravo