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100 Years Of Women Refugees In 63 Riveting Photos

100 Years Of Women Refugees In 63 Riveting Photos
Getty Images
Getty Images

On Jan. 27 ― just seven days after taking office ― President Donald Trump signed an executive order that temporarily blocked refugees and citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries (including war-torn Syria) from entering the U.S.

“I am establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America,” Trump said about the executive order during a swearing-in ceremony at the Pentagon. “We don’t want them here.”

But who is “them”?

Throughout history people of different ethnicities and races from countries around the world have fled their homes because of war, famine, persecution and natural disaster. Germany, Vietnam, Russia, Darfur and Syria are just a few of the many countries people have had to flee from over the last 100 years.

Refugees are people: teachers, store owners, truck drivers, mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, sons, daughters sisters and brothers ― and they help make the United States the diverse and beautiful country it is today.

Although a federal appeals court temporarily halted Trump’s executive order, the ban has created much longer waiting periods for refugees who are in the process of emigrating, and sparked an uptick in anti-Muslim hate crimes across the country.

To honor refugees this Women’s History Month, we’ve rounded up 63 photos of female refugees immigrating to new countries from the last 100 years. From Jewish refugees fleeing the persecution of the Nazi regime in World War II, to the families leaving the civil war in Georgia in the early ‘90s, these powerful photos honor the courageous women who were forced to leave their homes in search of new ones.

Scroll through the images below and remember: When you ban refugees, this is who you’re hurting.

To read more of HuffPost’s Women’s History Month coverage head here, or follow along with HuffPost on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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