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[Image: A Middle Eastern woman looking at the camera while surrounded by greenery and white flowers]

Part 34 of a series of posts honoring the Grenfell Tower victims.

Fatemeh Afrasiabi, from the 18th floor of Grenfell Tower

Fatemeh Afrasiabi, cousin of Sakineh Afrasehabi, was visiting her flat on the night of the fire. She had arrived to Britain as a refugee in 2013, originally being from Iran.

She had five children. All of them lived in Iran and she would FaceTime them constantly. Her daughter Raheleh spoke at the Grenfell inquiry about what kind of person her mother was.

“My mother had a passion for painting, she was a very good
painter. She used to make very beautiful paintings, creatively …

I wish I still had your kind and warm embrace.”

Another daughter, Sara, showed the inquiry a doll her mother had made for her. Fatemeh absolutely loved art and creating, and would always make her family nice things with her sewing machine.

A friend of Fatemeh’s also spoke at the inquiry:

“She was a great woman, she was not like the ordinary people.
She was very kind, the sympathy she was showing to everyone was incredible… An image I can’t forget is her smiling face.”

There was one family member who was not present, Fatemeh’s
husband. His visa was denied. His son decried this at the inquiry:

“I wanted to take this opportunity to remember my father,
who could not come to the UK, his visa application was refused, and he says that ‘I am spending my days and nights by the thought of my children and I want to be able to visit my wife’s grave’.”

A petition was started to get the whole family visas, it gained over 2000 signatures, but now it has gone.

–

Sources

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2018/may/30/grenfell-inquiry-final-day-of-tributes-live-updates?page=with:block-5b0eb34ee4b069235b5ce8fc#liveblog-navigation

http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/national/article/Relatives-upset-that-visa-issues-prevented-them-paying-tribute-in-person-ed1440ad-7db3-461e-a42f-2f28a438837f-ds

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/19/iranian-family-grenfell-victims-call-uk-grant-visas