Think about it. You decide to go on vacation back to your native country to visit family and friends you haven’t seen for quite some time. The irony is, you left for vacation on the day Donald Trump was inaugurated. During your vacation, you get word of an executive order suspending citizens from Iran from traveling to the United States. You panic, cut your vacation short, and quickly try to purchase a ticket from Dubai to D.C, then back to your home in South Carolina. Your car is parked at the airport, and your 6-month old puppy is being watched by a neighbor and waiting your return home. You’ve boarded a plane headed home. Suddenly, you’re stopped and asked for your identification; then, airline security removes you from the flight and informs you that you will not be able to return to the United States. No warning, no time to think, no time get your life in order. This is what happened to Clemson PhD Grad Nazanin Zinouri.
A citizen of Iran, Zinouri has lived in the United States for seven years and is one of many foreign workers now living in the U.S. whose life has been interrupted by Donald Trump’s executive order. Not only is she a PhD graduate from Clemson, according to CNN, “she earned her Ph.D. in industrial engineering from Clemson University, and was awarded the Janine Anthony Bowen Graduate Fellow award for her outstanding academic performance in her field.”
Zinouri is currently employed at the tech company Modjoul in South Carolina under a worker visa.
Zinouri posted her ordeal on Facebook and it quickly went viral, she wrote:
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