
US President Donald Trump's new executive order that bars residents of seven majority-Muslim countries (
One of the people caught in this unfortunate crossfire is 30-year-old
Asgari had spent months on planning her big move from Switzerland to the
Except she didn't. Asgari didn't even make it to the United States.
She had secured a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and even had won an award for her research in Switzerland, that would pay for her salary at her new Americanb lab. All in all, it was a happy time for Asgari. Everything was going right, she thiught.
Except that hwer happiness was shortlived. Just as she attempt to board her second flight to Boston on Saturday morning, after flying from Geneva to Frankfurt, she got the biggest shock of her life.
“A gentleman stopped me from boarding the plane,” she said. “He told me he was a consulate of the American government in Frankfurt and not allowing anybody with a number of nationalities to board planes to the United States. They had already unloaded my luggage and everything,” she said.
Naturally, she was confused. Her first reaction was telling the man that it couldn't be happening to her, because she had a valid visa. The answer she got was that 'it didn't matter'. She would need to board a flight back home as she would definitely not be allowed to enterI was pretty excited to join @soumya_boston's lab but denied boarding due to my Iranian nationality. Feeling safer?
— Samira Asgari (@samsam_86) January 28, 2017
Now, as a result of that executive order that has sparked widespread protests, a would-be Harvard researcher is left without a job or a home. For no fault of hers.
Making America great again?
Read her full story here: