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In recent years, Alizada and her art have travelled widely to the United States, Europe and Asia. She is to visit Denmark in early January for an exhibition and artist’s talk, and India in March.

Alizada also participated in a globe-trotting exhibition sponsored by the World Bank this year on the subject of violence against women. Some of those photos show women in traditional Muslim clothes with hands covering their mouths and eyes. Others show body parts tightly bound in ropes.

Symposium organizers are shocked at Alizada’s inability to get a visa.

“My reaction is surprise and extreme disappointment because Hanifa had travelled relatively freely in the past and participated in international exhibitions,” says Tony Martins, director of development for SPAO. “Hanifa’s desire to come to Canada to exhibit her work was a key factor in the development of the entire symposium.”

Alizada and Gholam Reza Sepehri, her fiancé and artistic collaborator, both applied for visas this fall through the Canadian High Commission in Islamabad, Pakistan. The Canadian embassy in Afghanistan does not issue visas to Afghan nationals and sends all applicants to Islamabad.

The high commission denied the applications in what appear to be form letters that spell out four reasons for the rejection of the applications by Alizada and Sepehri.

“In reaching a decision, an officer considers several factors; these may include the applicant’s travel and identity documents, reasons for travel to Canada, contacts in Canada, financial means for the trip, ties to country of residence (including immigration status, employment and family ties) and whether the applicant would be likely to leave Canada at the end of his/her authorized stay,” says the letter, a copy of which was sent by Alizada to the Citizen.