DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) – Syrian mother Dahouk Idriss can’t wait for US President-elect Joe Biden to be inaugurated on Wednesday so she can visit her son for the first time in four years.
Biden has promised that on his first day in office he will lift a travel ban imposed by Donald Trump on citizens of some predominantly Muslim countries to the United States.
« I’m counting the days until I get my next visa, » Idriss told AFP, who sat in her comfortable living room in Damascus and was surrounded by pictures of her distant children and her late husband.
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The retired chemistry teacher in her sixties said she visited her 36-year-old son twice after studying in Washington DC once in 2015 and the last time in late 2016 in the year the Syrian War broke out in 2011 had started.
After taking over the White House in 2017, Trump banned all travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the United States, sparking international outrage and domestic court rulings led.
Iraq and Sudan were removed from the list, but in 2018 the Supreme Court upheld a later version of the ban for Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, as well as North Korea and Venezuela.
« Thousands of mothers like me around the world have only one wish and that is to see their children again, » she said.
Since the outbreak of war, it has become increasingly difficult to travel anywhere from Syria, as many countries have severed ties with Damascus. Getting a visa often requires travel to an embassy in a neighboring country, which has been made even more difficult by COVID-19 restrictions.
But Idriss, who also struggled to visit her daughter in the United Arab Emirates, says she will jump through as many hoops as necessary to see her son again.
« I will go to each country to submit my documents as soon as they accept applications, » she said.
In another part of Damascus, 79-year-old Lamees Jadeed said she, too, hoped Biden would Keep his promise.
« It’s been more than four years since I last saw my daughter, » she said. « I’m afraid I’ll die alone without seeing her. I’m probably more impatient for Biden to become president than he is himself. »
Her daughter, 38-year-old Nawwar, traveled in late 2015 on a scholarship the USA. Since then she has applied for asylum and therefore cannot leave the country.
Jadeed says she traveled to Lebanon once in 2018 to apply for a visa at the US embassy, but was refused.
In In the Libyan capital Tripoli, Mariam and Abdelhadi Reda, both in their late seventies, said they couldn’t wait to see their three grandchildren again. Since the ban in 2017, they have managed to reunite in Turkey due to the additional airline tickets and hotel bills.
She was born in the US after her parents traveled there to receive a grant from the Libyan government when they were younger.
« I miss the states, » said Mariam in Tripoli. « We have very fond memories and old friends from our college years that we see every time we return. »
In Iran, retired midwife Mahnaz (62) said that in 2018 she was not at the bedside of her daughter Neda when she gave birth to her first child in Los Angeles.
“It was my first grandchild. I had been waiting to live this moment with my daughter. How I had dreamed of it and made plans, ”she said.
After the two countries broke off diplomatic relations in 1979 and did not have a US embassy in Tehran, she traveled to neighboring Armenia in the hope of an exception to the « I even wrote a letter from an American psychologist saying my daughter needs emotional support, » she said.
Despite the promise from an understanding staff member at the embassy, her request was met declined. She didn’t meet her grandson Kian until nine months later when her daughter returned to Tehran to visit her.
« This ban tore so many families apart, » said Mahnaz. “The person who ordered this is not a normal person and has not considered the human consequences of his decisions. I can’t wait for Biden to arrive and repeal this law. “
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