Fordham Law student Farimah Kashkooli was featured in the New York Post about the impact that President Trump’s travel ban has had on the life of her daughter, who was supposed to come to the United States for a series of life-saving medical procedures.
Alma Kashkooli can barely talk, walks with great difficulty and is prone to seizures. And if this 11-year-old Iranian girl does not get to the United States quickly, she will likely go blind.
Instead, the Fordham University law student is grounded in her nearly empty Manhattan apartment while her little girl is stuck 6,000 miles away in her native Iran, one of seven Muslim majority countries that were subject to a temporary travel ban imposed on Jan. 27 by the Trump Administration.
Kashkooli, 33, could not leave New York to get her daughter as scheduled because the ban meant she would not be allowed back.
“I got shocked,” she told The Post. “I cried. I wanted to leave because I realized there was no way to bring Alma for surgery.”
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She suffers from what is known as a congenital disorder of glycosylation or CDG, which impairs the ability of cells to communicate with each other. It can have wide-ranging and devastating effects. Only 20 or so people around the world are thought to suffer from her form of CDG.
“I can’t just sit in the corner and say ‘OK, I will have a blind child,’” said Kashkooli. “I have fought for every single moment of my child’s life.”
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“We have traveled to 39 states, and I have received such kindness from so many people in America,” her mother said. “And I am happy to know that the research in Alma’s case has already benefited other children here.”
Kashkooli, who has a student visa and is on a partial scholarship from Fordham Law School specializing in international humanitarian law, now finds her daughter a desperate test case in her own field of study.
She was working with an immigration lawyer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to get a medical waiver for Alma.
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“I believe there has to be a commitment to humanity,” said Kashkooli. “Even in times of conflict, you have humanitarian law.”
And she had a special message for President Trump: “Please, when you look at your son, think about my daughter.”