WATCH: A Yemeni-American Woman Fights Trump’s Travel Ban in ‘America Uprising’

By Sameer Rao Oct 13, 2017

Divided Films, a film production company that specializes in documentaries about social injustice, launched a new documentary series today (October 13) that highlights individual struggles at the center of grassroots resistance to Trump administration policies.

"America Uprising" premiered this afternoon via Refinery29. The first episode, "Muslim Ban," centers on Rabyaah Althaibani, a Yemeni-American community activist in Brooklyn, New York. "Muslim Ban" shows Althaibani working with other local Yemeni- and Arab-American community members to coordinate actions against the first version of the "Muslim ban”—Trump’s executive order restricting entry from nationals of several Muslim-majority countries, including Yemen.

The travel ban, which still includes Yemen in the most current iteration, affects Althaibani’s life on a deeply personal level. Her husband, Basheer Othman, is a Yemeni national and journalist whose work critiques ideological extremism. He currently lives in Malaysia as a tentative refugee, threatened by retaliatory violence in his native country and prohibited from entering the U.S. Throughout "Muslim Ban," Althaibani connects her personal hardship to nationwide resistance against the discriminatory measures taken and advanced by the Trump administration. 

"Muslim Ban" is the first of eight episodes in "America Uprising." As noted on the series website, several of the episodes specifically center communities of color. "This Land I Love" highlights Native tribes’ fight against U.S. government treaty violations, while "Mama’s Bail Out" explores this year’s National Mama’s Bail Out Day actions that aimed to raise bail for Black mothers who are incarcerated. 

Watch the first episode of "America Uprising" above, and check out scenes from future episodes in the trailer below: