By Sam Smith For Metro – Almost 2,000 people crammed the halls of North Vancouver’s Jamatkhana to honour Dr. Roshan Thomas, a beloved teacher and humanitarian who was killed in Afghanistan by Taliban forces on March 21.
Conducted in the traditional Ismailis Muslim funeral style, friends, family and even those who only learned of her deeds packed the halls to pay their respects.
“We mourn the departure of a beautiful soul, among eight others, including Zeenab Kassam of Calgary, who was taken from us at the dawn of the Afghan New Year in Kabul,” the family said in a prepared statement. “We mourn those who plan and commit these atrocities (who) have never known the beauty of our faith, Islam, or of any other faith in the path of God. We mourn the loss of a remarkable woman who was both a leader and a servant, a teacher and a student, a friend and a mother.”
Thomas and her husband Rahim founded a series of schools called the Sparks Academy in Kabul, which focuses on early childhood development. Since 2003, her single school of 50 students has grown to six schools and nearly 900 students.
The Thomas family also currently has six Afghan children living in their home so they can get a Canadian education and return back to their home countries with their newfound knowledge.
Ismailimail 