‘I'm Grateful': Iranian Post-Doc Stranded by Trump Order Arrives in Massachusetts

It was an emotional greeting for Samira Asgari and her colleagues when she arrived at Boston Logan International Airport Friday afternoon.

"I'm very excited," said Asgari, a scientist set to study tuberculosis at Harvard Medical School. "I'm grateful to Massachusetts and people of Massachusetts for giving me this opportunity."

Asgari is from Iran and almost missed out on her opportunity because of President Donald Trump's immigration ban targeting seven countries.

She tried flying into Boston from Germany last Saturday, but was banned from getting on her flight.

"I'm very grateful to Lufthansa," said Asgari.

The airline made her third attempt at flying into Boston a success.

Lufthansa is the only airline that changed its policy to coincide with a Massachusetts court's temporary restraining order.

The order blocks the president's executive order for seven days.

Dr. Soumya Raychaudhuri will oversee Asgari's research.

He describes her as someone with an abundance of perseverance.

"Samira is somebody who has dedicated her life to science," he said. "She's a determined person. She is someone who has the determination necessary to succeed in science."

Asgari believes her perseverance helped her get through a week of uncertainty.

"I think that helped for sure," said Asgari. "My efforts wouldn't work if there were not other people who really helped me. People who I didn't know, people who I knew, people from here, from the lab that I'm joining, people from Switzerland, people that I didn't know and was just sending messages of support."

Asgari didn't go into detail about what she went through to get to Boston. Instead, she's focused on getting to work Monday.

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