The birth of your child is supposed to be a uniquely special moment in any parent’s life. But father-to-be Hoger Ameen will miss it because of his nationality.
Hoger is in Iraq working in the city of Sulaymaniyah, while his pregnant wife Rachel Adrian is at home in Missouri, USA, and due to give birth to the couple’s first child this week.
The telecommunications professional had planned to be back in time to see his son born and support his wife through labour.
However, when US president Donald Trump signed an executive order halting all citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the country for at least 90 days on Friday, that all changed.
Now, Rachel is facing the almost certain prospect of giving birth to the couple’s son without her husband by her side, the Los Angeles Times reports.
“I am afraid that when I do get to come my son won’t know who I am,” Hoger told the paper in an email.
“This is my first son and I feel sick that I won’t get to hold him.”
Hoger, a Sunni Kurd, had met Ms Adrian and fell in love while she was working as a nurse in Iraq five years ago. In 2014 the pair married.
The 29-year-old had all his paperwork in order to reunite with his wife in time for their son's birth, planning to start their new life together in Rachel's hometown of Saint Joseph.
"We wanted to move back to America to be able to spend our first few years [there] with our new son," Rachel told the LA Times.
Rachel said that even if the ban was lifted today, her husband's visa application process has been disturbed and it would take two weeks for him to arrive - meaning he is almost certain to miss his child's birth.
The mum-to-be said the couple had already decided to call their son Aland, which she described as "a Kurdish name but it kind of sounds American".
"I have no idea when he'll get to meet his son. And that's really sad."
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Top Comments
I feel for him. The implementation of this has been a shemozzle.
On a side note, can we stop calling it a muslim ban.
What else should we call it? It's banning passport holders from Muslim-majority countries - sounds like a Muslim ban.
No we won't stop calling it that.
Nope. Let's call it what it is. Not an alternate fact.
But it bans them regardless of religion, hence not a muslim ban.
If it banned everyone form South Korea where the national religion is Bhudism would you call it a Bhudism ban? No, because that doesn't fit with the attacks.