Iranians have responded to Donald Trump’s executive order with shock and anger amid growing international outrage at the entry ban on people from Muslim-majority countries including Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan.

Iranians form the biggest share of immigrants in the US out of the seven countries on Trump’s list, and many stranded in the US took to social media to share their experiences, reporting families in disarray and careers in jeopardy.

Some claimed border guards in the US had asked for their laptop and social network passwords.

Niaz, who lives in Rochester, New York, returned to the US from Canada on Saturday after visiting friends in Toronto. “I was asked to fill a form [at the airport] giving all the information about myself, my family, occupation and surprisingly giving away the password to my personal phone as well as the make and model of my phone,” she told the Guardian.



“They got my phone and went back inside and it took them another hour to check everything possible in my phone. The whole process took more than three hours and it finished with fingerprints and photo capturing.”



Kiana Karimi, a 34-year-old PhD student based in New York who holds an American passport, travelled to Egypt two weeks ago and arrived at JFK airport on Saturday. She said she ended up in a room with other people with visa ban issues after a secondary evaluation on her American passport was required.



“At least for the 15 minutes that I was waiting in that line, I didn’t see a single white person among us. Yes, a line of only brown and black people who predominantly seemed Muslim were in a separate line from other citizen passengers,” she told the Guardian.

The Iranian foreign ministry has condemned the visa bans on Iranians as “an insult to the Muslim world” and a “gift to extremists and their supporters”, saying that Tehran would reciprocate.

But Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said that unlike the US ban, Iran’s would allow entry to those who already had a valid visa. “Unlike the US, our decision is not retroactive. All with valid Iranian visas will be gladly welcomed.”



Iran also summoned the Swiss envoy, Giulio Haas, whose embassy represents Washington in the absence of a US diplomatic mission in Iran, to formally object to the executive order.

Officials from other affected countries also voiced strong condemnation of the new restrictive travel measures.

Iraq’s foreign affairs committee filed a request that its own government respond with a visa ban. It said after a meeting on Sunday in Baghdad: “Iraq is in the frontline of the war on terrorism … and it is unfair that the Iraqis are treated in this way.”

Trita Parsi, the president of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), whose organisation has followed many such cases, said on Twitter: “I want to repeat: Green card holders were handcuffed, their social media was reviewed, and they were asked their views on Trump.”

The NIAC said visa bans marked a dark day in the history of the US. “Families are being ripped apart without warning and with no assurance of when they will be reunited. Students travelling abroad at the time of the ban are horrified that they might not be able to return to continue their studies. Children are being detained along with their parents when they were just seeking to return home,” it said in a statement.

Omid Kordestani, the Iranian-American executive chairman of Twitter, a platform Trump uses daily to broadcast his views, said on the social network: “Our democratic institutions will prevail and they are bigger than any one person in position of power, temporarily!”

In Tehran, Ali Larijani, the parliamentary speaker, said the travel ban revealed the “violent and racist attitude” of the US hidden behind the mask of democracy, and said viewing Iran as a terrorist concern “sounds like a joke”.

Nazanin Zinouri was visiting family in Iran when she heard about Trump’s plan to impose visa bans. She wrote on her Facebook that she booked tickets quickly but was taken off the plane in Dubai.

“After almost seven years of living in the United States, I got deported,” she said. “No one warned me when I was leaving, no one cared what will happen to my dog or my job or my life there. No one told me what I should do with my car that is still parked at the airport parking. Or what to do with my house and all my belongings.”

Amin Karbasi said his wife and their newborn daughter had gone to Iran three weeks ago and were no longer able to return. “It is not clear they can come back to the US. And this feeling eats me alive.”

Vida Tayebati, who is based in Massachusetts, was waiting for her parents to visit her after two years. “I sat in the kitchen for four hours, feeling paralysed, broken and hopeless. My heart is heavy,” she said.

“My mother and father went through all the stress of the crazy process of getting visa, it cost them a lot of time and energy, they travelled to Turkey from Iran for the visa interview and they finally got the visas. Now, I’m ashamed of calling them and saying all their efforts have been destroyed at the hands of a mad man, that they can’t visit their daughter even with a visa.”