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Dallas woman’s grief for sister killed in plane shot down by Iran on hold due to Trump travel ban

After Navaz Ebrahim’s newlywed older sister and her husband were killed when Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was mistakenly shot down by Iranian forces last month, all the Preston Hollow resident wanted to do was bring her parents to Dallas to grieve as a family.

But because of President Donald Trump’s travel ban, her parents’ visas were denied Feb. 7 by the U.S. Embassy in London, a decision that she said led to a breakdown.

“I missed the time to allow myself to grieve,” said Ebrahim, 31. “I’m just trying very hard to be with my parents during this difficult time.”

Ebrahim’s older sister, Niloufar, and her husband, Saeed Tahmasebi Khademasadi, were among those killed when their plane was shot down by Iranian forces in the early morning hours Jan. 8, just outside Tehran. The couple was returning to their home in London after celebrating their wedding in Iran with friends and family.

“She was the sweetest sister and friend I could ever ask for,” said Ebrahim, an architectural designer for Hodges Architecture. “She was very caring, she was very selfless, and she was always very supportive. I really miss her.”

Ebrahim was unable to attend the celebration because she’s an asylum-seeker living in Dallas with her husband, Nima, a legal permanent U.S. resident originally from Iran. Ebrahim has lived in the U.S. since 2012 and in Dallas since 2014, but her pending asylum application makes it almost impossible for her to leave the country without forfeiting her status.

Navaz Ebrahim looks at a photograph of her family at her home in Dallas, TX, on Feb. 14, 2020.
Navaz Ebrahim looks at a photograph of her family at her home in Dallas, TX, on Feb. 14, 2020.(Jason Janik / Special Contributor)

Last phone call

Ukraine flight 752 took off amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. and after an Iranian missile attack on two U.S. bases in Iraq earlier that night.

Ebrahim spoke on the phone with her sister as their flight prepared to take off. Both siblings expressed concern about the missile attacks, but Niloufar reassured her sister that the flight would be safe.

“She was very selfless, and she was worried about us sitting in front of the TV, watching the news and getting nervous,” Ebrahim said. “She was trying to make it a little easier for us.”

When news broke of a plane crash outside Tehran, Ebrahim immediately called her parents, Masood Ebrahim, 63, and Shahin Shakooea, 67, because she didn’t know her sister’s flight number.

“I couldn’t put my words together,” Ebrahim said. “My mother kept repeating ‘what happened?’ I told her one Ukrainian airplane has crashed and asked if she could check the flight number.

“My mother and my father were both screaming and crying. My mother was trying to look for the flight ticket information. She finally managed to find it and read ‘7-5-2.’ By that time, we weren’t really talking because we already knew that it was the same flight.”

Ebrahim hasn’t seen her sister since 2014, when they briefly reunited in Iran. Ebrahim hasn’t seen her parents since 2016, when they visited her in Dallas.

The travel ban

Citizens of the countries affected by the ban can still obtain visas from consular officers through a waiver process.

Since the travel ban went into effect, State Department data shows the number of nonimmigrant visas issued to Iranians has plummeted.

In the wake of her sister’s death, Ebrahim said, “all I was thinking about was my parents.”

It was only a couple days after the crash when Ebrahim started gathering documents in an attempt to prove her parents had reason to visit her in the U.S.

“We were grieving and I was trying to process what happened, but at the same time, I was overworking myself trying to get all these forms and documents together,” Ebrahim said.

Despite the travel ban, Ebrahim said she didn’t expect her parents’ application to be rejected, calling it a “humanitarian case.”

Her parents brought a file with them to the embassy that included newspaper clippings detailing their family’s tragedy, passports showing their extensive travel to countries around the world — including the U.S. — and a letter of support from Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas.

“Denying a visa at this time, for the purposes of temporarily uniting Mrs. Navaz Ebrahim with her parents, would deprive them the opportunity to properly grieve their daughter and sister, creating undue hardship for the family,” Allred wrote.

Ebrahim’s parents are in London waiting for the British government to release their daughter and son-in-law’s bodies so they can be buried.

Following a two-minute meeting, Ebrahim said the consular official rejected her parents’ application without viewing any of their supporting documents. Her parents, who own property, a business and receive monthly pensions in Iran, were told they failed to prove they will return to Iran following their visit to the U.S.

“It was an overwhelming day,” Ebrahim said. “I was going out of my mind because I didn’t expect them to not even look at the documents. By that evening, I was having a nervous breakdown. I felt hopeless and just had to rest.”

The State Department declined to comment on her parents’ case, citing federal laws that make visa applications confidential.

Ebrahim said she isn’t giving up hope that the embassy will reconsider its decision.

While she works to secure visas for her parents, Ebrahim said she gets emotional when she thinks about other people separated from family in the U.S. because of the travel ban.

“I hope to be the voice of others who are struggling,” Ebrahim said. “We’re not bad people. We’re looking for peace. We’re not threats.”

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