Travel Ban Leaves Teenage Girl's Father Stranded in Iran Ahead of 16th Birthday
Impacting Travel Patrick Clarke January 30, 2017
President Donald Trump's executive order banning travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the U.S. has been met with significant backlash and has already caused heartache for many travelers and their families, including 15-year-old Malikeh Sharifi.
According to Australia's Nine News, Sharifi's father was supposed to visit her in the U.S. for her 16th birthday, but in wake of the travel ban, he's been held back in Iran.
"He was supposed to be here this summer. He had all his paperwork and the other day he got an email saying he couldn't come because he is Muslim," Sharifi said while attending a protest at Los Angeles International Airport over the weekend.
Sharifi said she has lived in the U.S. for seven years but hasn't seen her father in more than a decade.
"I haven't seen my dad in 11 years, and when I was about to see him, he can't come."
In addition to Iran, Trump's order impacts travelers coming to the U.S. from Syria, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
"I am American but I am not Donald Trump's version of American, nor will I ever be," added Sharifi. "I will fight to the death for who I am. I would rather die a Muslim than live a person I am not."
LAX Airport isn't the only place demonstrators have gathered to protest the travel ban since it went into effect this past weekend. Protests have taken place all across the country, with thousands gathering at New York's Battery Park, Boston's Copley Square and a plethora of international airports, including in Atlanta, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., among others.
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