Travel Ban Dampens Persian New Year Celebration
The New York Times’s Jennifer Medina reports that many Iranian-Americans will not be with their families this year for Nowruz, the Persian New Year celebration, due to concerns about the Trump administration’s travel ban. Minoo Yousefi, an Iranian-American in Los Angeles, home to the largest Iranian diaspora in the world, said, “This is supposed to be a time of celebration, but I am so anxious.” Medina writes, “For many members of the diaspora, this is the first time since arriving in the United States after the Iranian revolution of 1979 that they feel that they cannot risk leaving the country for fear they will not be allowed to return.”