Sarvenaz Almasi known by Naz is a 24 years old Iranian-Kurdish asylum seeker, who fled her home 5 years ago for the fear of her life from the government and as a result of her advocating for women’s rights in Tehran university where she was studying bachelor of social communication sciences. She came to Australia on 2013 hoping to seek a safe asylum and to build a better future for herself and her family. Since arrival she has been eagerly trying to find a way to continue her higher education in this country however based on her visa she had very limited and complicated study rights meaning that she could only study if she paid for her education as an international student.
In 2016 Naz could finally fulfil her dream of becoming a psychologist and resuming higher education, she was one of the very few recipients of Swinburne welcome scholarship that was introduced for asylum seekers who were active in community. however the scholarship was only covering the tuition fees for first year of studies. Later on Naz could convince the university to expand the scholarship duration to cover the entire 3 years of bachelors degree. She is now successfully finished her first year of studies in bachelor of Health Sciences major in psychology and psychophysiology with distinction grades and is looking forward to start her second in February.
Naz has been a great advocate for education rights for asylum seekers and for that reason she has been involved in various events and fundraisers including but not limited to : “Asylum seekers and refugees- Women, Education and Empowerment” fundraising breakfast, “National symposium: people seeking asylum and education” and “MYAN’s national conference”. Naz has also been involve in her community and is a co founder of Kurdistan Patriotic Association of Victoria which aims to help the kurdish people with their needs.
