She came from Azerbaijan. A professional musician, she soon found a position and attracted local support. Tina wanted to see her mother and to have a chance of playing in recital with her mother again. Her mother, too, is a fine musician. However, her mother could not get the required tourist visa to visit Canada because the Canadian visa officer overseas did not believe that her mother would return to Azerbaijan.
Present law gives a visa officer wide discretion in granting or denying visas.
Tina cannot return to her mother because she fears she would be put in jail again by her husband, an ardent Muslim. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, most Armenians in Azerbaijan like Tina were expelled by the predominantly Muslim State. Many mixed marriages like Tina's came under stress and in Tina's case the marriage fell apart. Tina's mother was able to stay in Azerbaijan because she has a name which does not give away her Armenian origins. At the same time, she lives with fear.