Travel ban could mean no bride, no wedding for this couple

New York - "Our love will be stronger than ur ban & wall," Aliabadi wrote. The tweet quickly went viral.

It's the wedding without a bride: Donald Trump's ban on travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries has left an American groom heartbroken, his Iranian wife in shock and their plans to celebrate on ice - indefinitely.
Roozbeh Aliabadi, a 32-year-old managing partner in a consulting firm, and Zhinous, a 31-year-old architect, met at a party two years ago in Tehran and fell in love. They married legally last June in Iran.
Aliabadi returned to America and applied for his wife to join him, excited to introduce her to the country he loves, celebrate their wedding properly and settle down - with Zhinous looking for jobs and Aliabadi applying for PhD programs.
On January 17, in the dying days of the Barack Obama administration, they heard her permanent residency had been approved. Ecstatic, the couple thought they would be reunited by Valentine's Day.
Ten days later, Trump suspended visas for people from the seven countries - Iran included - for 90 days to review vetting procedures and determine whether requirements needed to be tightened.
"I was heartbroken," Aliabadi told AFP in a telephone interview from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where his family is based.
Never in his wildest dreams did he think this would happen in America.
"I don't think we can have a wedding if you don't have a bride," he said.
"Frankly, we just stopped planning."
Not normally one to make his personal life public, Aliabadi posted a picture of the couple on Twitter with a heartfelt message for Trump.
In the photograph, Zhinous is wearing a checked shirt, her hair braided. He wears a blazer and shirt. He wanted to inspire empathy for regular people affected by the explosive order.
"Our love will be stronger than ur ban & wall," Aliabadi wrote. The tweet quickly went viral.
"We all care about making the United States safe," he told AFP. "What I wanted to show is these types of things have obstructed the way we're living."
Aliabadi says he has experienced prejudice as a Muslim in the past but says nothing comes close to the temporary travel ban - not even in the days after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"As horrific as those events were, I felt a sense of responsibility. Today people like me, they feel a sense of fear," he said.
More than one million Iranians live in the United States. A total of 35,000 Iranians visited the United States in 2015 on visas.
Zhinous may have been approved as a resident, but she still needs a visa. To get that, she will need to travel abroad as the US embassy in Tehran closed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution - a time-consuming and expensive process.
"What type of option do I have? If my wife cannot come to the United States, that means essentially Mr Trump is kicking me out of the United States. Or I should get a divorce, which is not an option," he said.
He now says he is fighting two public relations battles: one in America to show that Iranians are law-abiding, good people, and another with Zhinous.
"I am trying to tell my wife, 'Don't listen to our 45th president... it's a really great country'."
"She doesn't understand it. She's in a state of shock."
He tries to distract her by being funny and telling her how much he loves her.
An eternal optimist - his American side, he jokes - he is confident that the ban will expire and his wife can still come.

• MENA