Three Iranian couples recount heartbreak of Trump’s travel ban
The new US president's Jan. 27 executive order to ban Iranians and nationals of six other countries from entering the United States has directly impacted countless families, including couples who have found themselves separated.
Happy endings are seeming harder to find with President Donald Trump in office, but one potentially heartbreaking story did wind up having a good outcome at Boston’s Logan International Airport. When Poorya Kamali, a 28-year-old studying for a doctorate in chemistry, learned of Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order to ban the entry of citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, his wife, Fatemeh Safaee, had begun her trip back to the United States from their native Iran. Safaee is a holder of an F-2 visa, which allows spouses of student visa holders to enter the United States. Kamali and Safaee had spent Christmas break in Iran with family; he had returned earlier to begin his semester at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
“Airport authorities denied her transit in Frankfurt [Germany],” Kamali told Al-Monitor. “They didn't let her board the flight to Chicago. They sent her back to Iran.”
