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Sirin Hamsho, the General Electric engineer from Niskayuna who was stranded in Qatar following President Donald Trump's Jan. 27 travel ban, has been a quiet force in inspiring not only women who work in technology but also for giving Arab immigrants a voice.

Hamsho had just done an interview at Al Jazeera's studios in Doha, Qatar, with Nawras Abu Saleh, a Palestinian screenwriter and director, when the travel ban went into effect.

Hamsho is a native of Syria, one of the seven Muslim-majority countries covered by Trump's travel ban, which was put on hold last Friday by a federal judge.

Lawyers for GE and U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko assisted Hamsho in trying to get out of Qatar last week after the ban effectively kept her and her two young children stranded there.

Hamsho, who was on a trip to the Middle East with her two young children, said on her Facebook page that she hopes to come home to her husband in the coming days, although her exact travel plans are uncertain.

"In the coming days I should be able to go back home," she wrote on Feb. 5, her last Facebook post.

Attempts to reach Sirin for comment have been unsuccessful, although friends have said  she was told by her lawyers to reveal little to the public about her travels plans.

At the time Trump's ban took place there was confusion over who it covered. Hamsho also is a French citizen, but for a while, airlines and immigration officials were telling dual citizens like Hamsho that they could not enter the United States. In some cases, however, such dual citizens were allowed in as long as they presented the passport of a country not covered by the ban.

Hamsho, who designs wind turbines for GE in Schenectady, did an interview for Al Jazeera in Qatar on  Jan. 26, the day before Trump's executive order was signed. 

She was interviewed by Abu Saleh, a well-known screenwriter and filmmaker whose 2013 movie "Oversized Coat" won critical acclaim for its view into life in the West Bank.

The talk, which was broadcast on one of Al Jazeera's streaming video channels, centered on "Arab women in the diaspora and the challenges of integration" into the western world.

Hamsho herself is a filmmaker, having made a short movie called "Hajar," which is about migration. She got the inspiration for the film from watching Syrian refugees trying to assimilate into American culture and life.

"Hajar" has gotten nearly 400,000 hits on You Tube.

Hamsho has worked to help Syrian war refugees in the Capital Region as well.

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