The modified version of Donald Trump’s travel ban, which went into effect Thursday night, is a “shameful” act targeting “Iranian grandmothers”, Iran’s foreign minister has said.

Nationals from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen have been banned from obtaining a visa to enter the US if they fail to show a credible “bona fide relationship” with a person or entity in the US.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, a close ally of Iran’s moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, said on Twitter: “US now bans Iranian grandmothers from seeing their grandchildren, in a truly shameful exhibition of blind hostility to all Iranians.”



Iranians protested by sharing photos of their grandparents online using #GrandparentsNotTerrorists. “This is my lovely grandma. @realDonaldTrump does she look like a terrorist to you? #GrandparentsNotTerrorists,” tweeted Elham Khatami, who works for the National Iranian American Council (NIAC).



This is my lovely grandma. @realDonaldTrump does she look like a terrorist to you? #GrandparentsNotTerrorists pic.twitter.com/KkciEWBM1t — Elham Khatami (@ekhatami) June 29, 2017

“Because Trump doesn’t think I have a bonafide relationship with my grandpa ... #GrandparentsNotTerrorists,” tweeted another Iranian American, Ida Adibi, along with an image of her grandfather kissing her.



NIAC’s legal counsel, Shayan Modarres, said in a statement: “Trump’s pathological pursuit of the Muslim Ban has reached a new low by targeting grandparents of American children.”

“There are one million Iranian Americans in the United States and many cannot return home to visit loved ones,” he said. “President Trump’s directive might as well pull children out of the arms of their grandparents who will no longer be able to visit for the sole reason that they are Iranian. The president is supposed to protect American families, not rip them apart.”

He said the “discriminatory” and “inhumane” policy “does nothing to add to America’s security”, and “only creates divisions by turning some Americans into second-class citizens simply because of their ancestry”.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has warned that the restrictive measures will have an immediate impact on already vetted refugees scheduled to go to the US. That includes an Iranian refugee currently in Iraqi Kurdistan, waiting to be admitted by the US.

After five years waiting, he was assigned for resettlement in the US 18 months ago after being recognised as in genuine need of protection. He said he underwent two interviews with American authorities a year ago, completed his medical examinations and was almost “one step away” from traveling to the US.



“Unfortunately, this order changed the whole thing,” he told the Guardian. “The most distressing part is the three-month suspension of accepting refugees. This period could have been finished months ago; however, people like me should wait again for these three months to pass in order to be hopeful again.



“Sadly, no one talk that much about the effects of this order on refugees,” he said. “No other countries accept Iranians and we can do nothing but remain hopeful and optimistic.”



Cornell University law school professor Stephen Yale-Loehr said the state department instructions interpreted the supreme court’s order too narrowly.

“Over half of all refugees don’t have close family ties in the US. Under these instructions, the ‘lost boys’ of Sudan – orphan children who fled famine and war and who came to the United States as refugees several years ago – would not be allowed to enter now,” he said.

Extreme vetting already in place means Syrian refugees wait an average of 18-24 months before being admitted to the US, he said. “The 21-step screening process goes through multiple agencies, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the US State Department, the FBI and the US.”



He added: “The Cato Institute calculates that the chance of being killed in a terrorist attack committed by a refugee is about one in 3.6 billion a year. The head of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services told Congress last September that not a single act of actual terrorist violence has been committed by a refugee ‘who has undergone our screening procedures’ since 9/11.”

Negar Mortazavi, a Washington DC-based Iranian-American journalist, said the “Iranian community have been disproportionately affected by the travel ban”.



Hamidreza Ranjbar is an Iranian blogger who has been an asylum seeker in Turkey for more than four years. “For a lot of us, this is the final blow,” he told the Guardian. “This travel ban sets fire to a quilt to get rid of a moth.”

Ahmad Sadri, an Iranian American professor of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College, said: “It doesn’t matter that none of these countries have been involved in international terrorism for decades. It doesn’t matter that a country such as Saudi Arabia that fomented the Islamist ideology for terrorism and spread it from Nigeria to Indonesia is not included in this ban. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter that this ban does nothing to promote the security of Americans one iota.”