BLOGS

A pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses gave Zahed Haftlang a second chance at life. More than a decade ago, shortly after arriving in Vancouver as a refugee, the Iranian mechanic and former prisoner of war attempted to kill himself in his tiny Yaletown apartment. Zahed was broken, lost. He believed he would never again see his wife, Maryam, nor their brand-new baby girl, Setayesh. Both were in Iran, a country he could never re-enter. He had spent half his young life at war—and the remainder tortured by its memories. “I’m exhausted,” he thought to himself. “I’m tired of breathing.” So Zahed found a bicycle brake cable, which he fashioned into a