A fourth year journalism student at St. Thomas University in Fredericton is speaking out over the recently imposed 90 day ban on travel to the U.S. by citizens of several Muslim majority countries after she realized it had impact on her own family.
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“I guess I was, I was kind of angry in the beginning, but then I realized that I was personally offended,” Hadeel Ibrahim said.
The ban, which is a result of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Friday, barred travellers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, Syria and Ibrahim’s birthplace of Iraq from entering the U.S. He also signed an order that temporarily suspended the resettlement of refugees in the country, including those from Syria.
Ibrahim came to Canada to study in 2013, while her mother and siblings live in California. But she said they don’t currently have status which she feels will impact their ability to travel, something she feels will also affect her as graduation approaches.
The situation also evokes emotion from Ibrahim’s family.
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Her brother Haider couldn’t hide his emotion during a video project being made at his high school.
Despite the emotion the situation evokes, Ibrahim said anger is not constructive.
“The most important thing right now is just reach out and be with your family and friends and be supportive and speak out but peacefully and empathize,” she said.
As people protest across the country and the U.S. in opposition to Trump’s travel ban, Ibrahim said if she could meet with the president she’d have just one question.
“Why do you hate us?” she asked. “It’s not cool man.”
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