When Donald Trump approved the executive order on the travel ban for seven majority-Muslims countries, Zaina Erhaim couldn't believe her ears. 。
The award-winning Syrian journalist and activist had been planning to tour America along with other Syrian women as part of a second-leg series of documentary screenings offering a rare insight into the one of the world's biggest crisis.。
Produced by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), the tour was funded by the Bureau of democracy, human rights, and labor (DRL), which is part of the US Department of State. 。
Now, the same department was telling Erhaim and other Syrian women that they're not welcome in the country anymore. 。
"The funny thing is the State Department funded the tour that the Syrian women were supposed to be doing, but then they prevented all Syrian women to come to the US. This is hilarious," she said.。
"Our work is going to be affected, just like the funding of many organisations inside Syria and neighbouring countries. There are many Syrians based there and going outside for holiday which can't just go back. Our border has become tighter and tighter." 。
Stuck in Turkey 。
It is not the first time that Erhaim, who was awarded 2015's "Journalist of the Year" by Reporters sans frontières ("Reporters Without Borders") tried unsuccessfully to access Western countries to do her job as an activist and journalist.。
Back in September last year, British authorities confiscated her passport at the request of Bashar al-Assad's Syrian government. 。
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Border officials told her the document had been reported stolen by the Syrian government. "When I questioned them saying 'do you really know what my government does?' they said 'oh, our system says your passport is reported stolen and we just have to take it, sorry'," she said. 。
Erhaim had previously used the document to travel to the UK in April 2016 without any problems, when she collected the Index on Censorship's Freedom of Expression Journalism award.
。Credit: IWPR 。
She also has an older Syrian passport that she used to return to Turkey, because it's still valid. However, the document has no pages left for visas or immigration stamps, so that means she's effectively stuck in Turkey. 。
The Home Office said Britain had to comply with the Syrian government's request. “If a passport is reported as lost or stolen by a foreign government we have no choice but to confiscate it,” the spokesman said. 。
Resilient women 。
The passport deed is particularly painful for Ehaim, who studied for a master's degree in the UK thanks to the prestigious Chevening Award, which brings "future leaders, influencers and decision-makers" in the country. 。
After Trump's travel ban was approved, the Syrian activist took to Facebook: 。
The first leg of film screenings in the US, made by Erhaim and entitled Syria's Rebellious Women, told individual stories of a group of resilient women working in rebel-held parts of Syria.。
"It was very effective, there was a great coverage and all the events were fully booked,"she said. 。
Now that her access to America is blocked indefinitely, Erhaim is worried it will have repercussions for her daughter, who is an American citizen. 。
"I don't know how that is going to affect us. She might be threatened to be stripped of her nationality because her mother committed the crime of being Syrian. I wouldn't be surprised after what's going on," she said. 。
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