Iraqi Nun Finally Granted Visa to Come to US and Advocate for Persecuted Back Home

State Department apparently reverses course on controversial decision

The Iraqi nun who was denied entry to the United States because, apparently, the State Department feared she would illiciltly overstay her visa has finally been granted one.

Dominican Sister Diana Momeka will be joining a delegation that includes Yazidi and Turkmen Shia in mid-May.

Nina Shea, a religious freedom advocate with the Hudson Institute, confirmed to National Review that Sister Diana will receive a visa.

The nun is expected to testify before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee, Nicholas Frankovich reported. Other details of her itinerary have not yet been set:

Last week, American advocates for Middle Eastern Christians loudly objected when they learned that the U.S. consulate in Erbil had denied her visa application for reasons that did not add up. She had been invited to testify before congressional hearings in both the House and the Senate and had arranged to meet with representatives of several NGOs in the United States.

Sister Diana, who has worked among the internally displaced persons in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil since the advance of the Islamic State group last summer forced tens of thousands of Christians out of their homes, was invited by the Institute for Global Engagement and former congressman Frank Wolf’s 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative. The delegation will also be meeting with officials at the State Department, and USAID.