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100 Years Of Women Refugees In 63 Riveting Photos

When you ban refugees, this is who you're hurting.
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Senior Reporter, HuffPost

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Photo Editor, HuffPost

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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.

2016, Italy
GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images
A woman looks through a window of rescue ship 'Aquarius' as more the 380 migrants arrive in the port of Cagliari, Sardinia, on May 26, 2016, two days after being rescued near the Libyan coasts.
2016, Turkey
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Syrians woman holds her children after 50 refugees captured by Turkish coast guard while they were illegally trying to reach Greece's Kastellorizo island, in shores of Kas District of Antalya, southern province of Turkey on February 24, 2016.
2016, Syria
DELIL SOULEIMAN via Getty Images
Syrian women sit next to the fence during a sandstorm at a temporary refugee camp in the village of Ain Issa, housing people who fled Islamic State group's Syrian stronghold Raqa, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the group's de facto capital on November 10, 2016.
2016, France
PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images
Kurdish Iraqi women leave aboard a bus the 'Jungle' migrant camp in Calais, northern France, on October 12, 2016, for a reception and guidance centre (CAO - Centre d'accueil et d'orientation).
2016, Serbia
ARMEND NIMANI/AFP/Getty Images
Migrants and refugees walk on January 8, 2016 after crossing the Macedonian border in the Serbian village of Miratovac.
2016, Iraq
AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images
Iraqis women displaced from the city of Fallujah queue up to collect aid distributed by the Norwegian Refugee Council at a newly opened camp where they are taking shelter in Amriyat al-Fallujah on June 27, 2016, south of Fallujah.
2015, Germany
Zohra Bensemra / Reuters
Houda, 48, hugs her son Ihab, 30, a Syrian migrant from Deir al-Zor, as he and his family arrive at the railway station in Lubeck, Germany September 18, 2015. Picture taken September 18, 2015.
2015, Greece
Yannis Behrakis / Reuters
Syrian refugee mother carries her child off a dinghy after arriving at a beach on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from Turkey September 18, 2015.
2015, Greece
LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP/Getty Images
A woman and a child peer from a bus, after migrants and refugees disembarked from a government chartered ferry, seen in reflection, in the port of Piraeus in Athens on November 27, 2015.
2015, Aegean Sea
ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images
Refugees and migrants arrive at Lesbos island after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey on October 27, 2015.
2015, Turkey
BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
Syrians fleeing the war rush through broken down border fences to enter Turkish territory illegally, near the Turkish border crossing at Akcakale in Sanliurfa province on June 14, 2015.
2015, Greece
ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images
A woman hugs a baby wrapped in an emergency blanket as refugees and migrants arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey on October 1, 2015.
2015, Greece
Matej Divizna via Getty Images
A woman reacts as she arrived with other refugees on the shores of the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey on a inflatable boat on October 1, 2015 near village of Skala Sikaminias, Greece.
2015, Aegean Sea
ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images
A woman falls into the water with her child as they disembark off a dinghi as refugees and migrants arrive at the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey, on October 2, 2015.
2015, Rwanda
J. Lawler Duggan/The Washington Post/Getty Images
A Burundian woman carries laundry at the Gashora refugee camp in Gashora, Bugesera, Rwanda Wednesday April 29, 2015.
2015, Croatia
Barcroft Media/Getty Images
A stampede occurs as Middle Eastern refugees rush to find space on a train headed to Beli Manastir on September 18, 2015 in Tovarnik, Croatia.
2014, Uganda
AFP/Getty Images
A South Sudanese woman sleeps on January 7, 2014 at the Ochaya Rhino refugee camp in the Arua District, about 495 kilometres north west of Uganda's capital Kampala.
2014, Turkey
NurPhoto via Getty Images
This old woman lost all her power after reaching Turkey coming from Syria, on September 30, 2014.
2014, Syria
Rodi Said / Reuters
Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Islamic State in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate in this August 11, 2014.
2014, Iraq
Gail Orenstein/NurPhoto/Getty Images
An 80 year old women becomes overwhelmed by the trauma of walking for 2 days from Qaraqosh is waiting to receive medical attention, in Irbil, Iraq, on August 10, 2014.
2014, Central African Republic
ISSOUF SANOGO/AFP/Getty Images
A refugee pullo woman holds her child while he receives care at a centre for displaced muslims fleeing the anti-balaka militia, in Yaloke, some 200 km east of Bangui, on May 4, 2014.
2013, France
Eric Gaillard / Reuters
A Roma woman cries after the announcement of their eviction from an illegal camp on the bank of the Var river in Nice, southeastern France, November 21, 2013.
2013, Iraq
Getty Images
Close-up of a young syrian refugee face with blue eyes in Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq on Sep. 21, 2013.
2012, Thailand
Paula Bronstein via Getty Images
A Burmese woman waits for food rations to be given out at the Thai Burmese Border Center inside the Mae La refugee camp June 7, 2012 in Tak province, Thailand.
2011, Kenya
TONY KARUMBA/AFP/Getty Images
A newly registered Somali refugee supports herself on a chain-link perimeter fence outside a registration and medical aid facility at the Dadaab Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp in eastern Kenya on July 23, 2011 where the influx of Somali's displaced by a ravaging famine remains high.
2010, Darfur
Zohra Bensemra / Reuters
An internally displaced woman uses a pick-axe to chip off clay to make bricks at Abu Shouk IDP's camp in Al Fasher, northern Darfur April 14, 2010.
2009, Bosnia
Damir Sagolj / Reuters
Milena Gavric, a 90-year-old Bosnian Serb refugee, holds her head as she waits for a U.N. delegation to visit her collective center in Srebrenica August 26, 2009.
2009, Kenya
Spencer Platt via Getty Images
Mako Bakar Bakaro, who lost a leg in fighting in Mogadishu, Somalia in 2008, stands against the wall of her hut August 21, 2009 in a refugee complex in Dadaab, Kenya.
2008, Algeria
Dani Cardona / Reuters
A Sahrawi woman walks with a stick at Dakhla's refugee camp, near Tindouf in southwestern Algeria, April 16, 2008.
2008, Afghanistan
ASIF HASSAN/AFP/Getty Images
An Afghan refugee woman cries after troops arrest her relative during a search operation in the Afghan refugee camp in Karachi on December 2, 2008.
2006, Lebanon
Spencer Platt via Getty Images
A woman gestures from a van carrying displaced people, one of thousands of civilians fleeing their southern villages as a forty eight hour halt of the Israeli bombing campaign allows access out of the area July 31, 2006 in Tyre, Lebanon.
2005, Afghanistan
FARZANA WAHIDY/AFP/Getty Images
An Afghan refugee holds her child as she sits in the sunshine inside their home in Kabul, 02 October 2005.
2005, Sri Lanka
Kieran Doherty / Reuters
A mother washes her child in the Mahmoud Ladies School which is being used as a refugee shelter for homeless tsunami families. A mother washes her child in the Mahmoud Ladies School which is being used as a refugee shelter for homeless tsunami families in Kalmunai on Sri Lanka's east coast January 10, 2005. The death toll from the Asian tsunami, triggered by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Indonesia on December 26, stood at 156,193 people, government and health officials said.
2005, Sudan
Reuters Photographer / Reuters
Internally displaced Sudanese women collect rainwater to be used for drinking and cooking in southern Sudan. Internally displaced Sudanese women from Mahli village in southern Darfur region collect rainwater to be used for drinking and cooking as they now live in an improvised refugee camp near Jaach village, northern Awil county in southern Sudan April 26, 2005.
2004, Gaza Strip
ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/Getty Images
A Palestinian woman breaks down in tears trying to salvage usable belongings from her demolished house in the northern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Jabalia on Oct. 16, 2004.
2004, Darfur
Zohra Bensemra / Reuters
A displaced Sudanese woman stands behind her shelter which is under construction at the Autash camp, in the north of Nyala, in the southern Darfur region in Sudan September 28, 2004. The Darfur rebellion, launched in February last year, has forced more than one million from their homes in what the United Nations says is the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
2003, Gaza Strip
MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images
RA Palestinian woman with her children runs away from clashes between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli troops during an Israeli army operation in the Rafah refugee camp, in the southern Gaza Strip on Dec. 23, 2003.
2003, Gaza Strip
Mohammed Salem / Reuters
A Palestinian woman relative of [Rami Hassanen 22],watches his funeral from her house at Rafah refugee camp Southern Gaza Strip December 24, 2003.
2003, Pakistan
JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images
An Afghan refugee woman dressed in a burqa and her child cross a road on their way to their home in a refugee camp in the outskirts of Islamabad, 18 November 2003.
2002, Gaza Strip
Reuters Photographer / Reuters
Palestinian women show their identity cards to receive European Union and United Nations aid in the Rafah refugee camp south of Gaza Strip December 1, 2002.
2000, Russia
Reuters Photographer / Reuters
Chechen refugees find some respite from a temperatures touching 40 degrees centigrade, in the river Sunza which flows nearby the Karabulak refugee camp in Ingushetia July 24, 2000. According to Muslim law the women must swim fully clothed.
1999, Albania
JOEL ROBINE/AFP/Getty Images
A woman carrying a baby arrives in Albania on April 3, 1999 with fellow ethnic Albanian refugees fleeing Serb repression in Kosovo via the tiny border crossing of Pashtrikut, north of Kukes.
1996, Georgia
David Turnley via Getty Images
Civil war in Georgia has forced a mother and her children to flee their village in Abkhazia and seek refuge in Zugdidi (Photo by David Turnley/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)
1993, Georgia
Malcolm Linton via Getty Images
A refugee woman cries while holding a child September 29, 1993 near Sukhumi, Georgia. Abkhazian separatist guerrillas fought with Georgian soldiers in Sukhumi and surrounding areas and succeeded in ousting government forces from the city at the end of September, 1993.
1993, Georgia
Jon Jones/Sygma/Getty Images
A young woman carries a gun to protect her children in Georgia.
1991, Iran
Mohsen Shandiz via Getty Images
Kurdish refugee camp, during the Iran-Iraq conflict.
1985, Lebanon
ATTAR/AFP/Getty Images
A Palestinian woman and her daughter come back from the Shatila refugee camp, near Beirut on June 10, 1985, where they went to see what was left from their home after more than three weeks of fighting in the camp.
1984, Sudan
Bettmann via Getty Images
Scenes of the feeding program in famine plagued Western Sudan on Dec. 1984.
1981, Honduras
John van Hasselt/Corbis/Getty Images
Women and their children in an El Salvadoran refugee camp at La Virtud, Honduras.
1968, Vietnam
nik wheeler/Corbis/Getty Images
Vietnamese woman carries her children and possessions on bamboo pole as she tries to escape fierce fighting in the Cholon suburb of Saigon during the Viet Cong Mini Tet offensive of the Vietnam War in May 1968.
1968, Vietnam
nik wheeler/COGetty Images
Screaming refugee woman flees her home with bundled possessions during Viet Cong attack on Saigon's Chinatown during the Mini Tet Offensive in Vietnam in June 1968.
1968, Laos
Bettmann via Getty Images
In this photo, women and children Laotian refugees await transportation to a new home at Luang Prabang airport. The refugees evacuated Nam Bac in the face of advancing Communist forces.
1967, Vietnam
Bettmann via Getty Images
Weeping South Vietnamese villagers huddle together as they await evacuation to new homes following battle near here recently on Nov. 17, 1967.
1951, Bengal
Hulton Deutsch/Corbis/Getty Images
A Tibetan mother who has fled with her daughter over the Himalayas to Kalimpong, in northern Bengal on Feb. 24, 1951.
1950, South Korea
Getty Images
With the United Nations forces going over to the offensive in Korea, 'Picture Post' sends cameraman Bert Hardy to record the latest movements of American, British and South Korean troops. He photographs front-line scenes, the arrival of United Kingdom troops, U.S. landings at Inchon, wounded, prisoners, refugees and general scenes connected with --the Korean campaign.----Refugees, mainly Chinese, in the ruins of Inchon, key port that was bombarded and invaded by American forces. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
1950, South Korea
Hulton Deutsch via Getty Images
Following the crossing of the 38th Parallel by North Korean troops and the United Nations intervention, 'Picture Post' sends cameraman Haywood Magee to the scene of the fighting to record the story of the retreat South, the stop-gap efforts that are being made to reform and the tangle of refugees, reinforcements and wounded circa 1950. He arrived at a time when U.S. and Korean troops were being driven back to the sea, prior to the arrival of substantial United Nations aid in the form of men and materials.---- Some of the women refugees who share the hardships of civil war in Korea. They have played their part in tending the wounded and shepherding the children when the gunfire opened. Now, when they are tired and near breaking point, the order comes for them to move on again.
1949, Indonesia
Keystone via Getty Images
Two starving women at a rehabilitation camp in Jokjakarta, Indonesia, where they are being fed by Dutch Government Agencies on Feb. 28, 1949.
1949, Palestine
STR New / Reuters
Newly arrived Israelis in their tent quarters at Beit Lid after arriving from Europe following the Nazi Holocaust of World War II on September 1, 1949.
1941, Russia
Max Alpert/Slava Katamidze Collection/Getty Images
1941: Women and children walking to eastern Russia after the German invasion.
1939, France
Hulton Deutsch/Corbis/Getty Images
A grieving woman sits among the few possessions she could carry from Spain into France, where she has fled seeking refuge from the Spanish Civil War on Jan. 29, 1939.
1939, Cuba
Keystone-France via Getty Images
Hebrew German refugees are denied the landing in Cuba when they arrive in Havana aboard the ship Saint-Louis; a woman can't land cried and is surrounded by her children in June 1939 in Havana, Cuba.
1930, Germany
Library of Congress/Corbis/Getty Images
Women prepare a meal at a camp in Germany. The refugee camp was set up by the NSV, a welfare organization in Nazi Germany circa 1930.
1915, Armenia
Bettmann via Getty Images
Group of Armenian girls and women who escaped death or worse at the hands of the Turks, the fate of tens of thousands of their sisters, because of their Christianity on Nov. 26, 1915.

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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