An American Muslim woman, who was on U.S. President Barack Obama's list of "leading Muslim females" in the country, said she was discriminated against on Friday after a flight attendant allegedly refused to give her an unopened can of soda.
“I am sitting on a United Airlines flight in the air 30,000 ft above and I am in tears of humiliation from discrimination,” Tahera Ahmad, Director of Interfaith Engagement and an Associate Chaplain at Northwestern University, posted on Facebook.
According to the post, the flight attendant allegedly refused to give her an unopened can of Diet Coke saying: "We are unauthorized to give unopened cans to people, because they may use it as a weapon on the plane."
Tahera wrote that the attendant brought the man sitting next to her an unopened can of beer.
"So I told her that she was clearly discriminating against me because she gave the man next to me an unopened can of beer. She looked at his can, quickly grabbed it and opened it and said, 'it's so you don't use it as a weapon,'" she wrote.
Appalled at her behavior, she asked passengers around her if they witnessed this discriminatory behavior, but a man sitting in an aisle across from her allegedly cursed her.
"He then leaned over from his seat, looked me straight in the eyes and said, ‘yes you know you would use it as a weapon,’" and allegedly cursed her again.
United Airlines said they have no comment on the case.
The company, however, responded to a Twitter user’s question on the matter and said, “We’re currently looking into this matter.”
She posted about her ordeal on Facebook, and her post soon went viral.
A hashtag supporting her soon started on Twitter, with people saying that they will boycott United Airlines until it apologises:
Disgusting discrimination and profiling. Not flying @united until they apologize to her. #unitedfortahera pic.twitter.com/KPTemjp6vc
— Quran Weekly (@QuranWeekly) May 30, 2015
I will not be flying #UnitedAirlines ever again until they learn how to not discriminate. #unitedfortahera
— ariba (@beebee313) May 30, 2015
Very disappointed to hear about @united Airlines Islamophobic behavior. I'll think twice before using your airline. #unitedfortahera
— Ayfa A. (@Ayfapieper) May 30, 2015
No #UnitedAirlines for me!!!! No discrimination!! #unitedfortahera
— jahmyllah hodges (@jahmyllah1979) May 30, 2015
@united All my employees travel using ur airline. But I wil now no longer allow them too. U have lost 18 customers today #unitedfortahera
— transcendence (@climbingover) May 30, 2015
Definitely won't be flying United on my looming trip to the States. #unitedfortahera
— Scarlett Hawkins (@Scarlett_Hawk) May 30, 2015
We reached out to United Airlines for comment, and they said:
‘United is a company that strongly supports diversity and inclusion, and we and our partners do not discriminate against our employees or customers. We are reaching out directly to Ms. Ahmad to get a better understanding of what occurred during the flight. We are also discussing the matter that Ms. Ahmad describes with Shuttle America, our regional partner that operated the flight. We look forward to speaking with Ms. Ahmad and hope to have the opportunity to welcome her back.’
source : abna
