Muslim woman on flight told she ‘would bring the whole plane down,’ advocacy group says
A Muslim woman is the focus of a religious discrimination complaint filed against Southwest Airlines on Tuesday after she said a flight attendant targeted her because she was wearing a hijab.
The Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a chapter of the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, sent a press release Tuesday about a complaint the chapter filed against Southwest Airlines.
A Muslim woman, who was born and raised in America, the press release says, was sitting in an exit row on a Southwest Airlines flight. A flight attendant made her move, saying that she “couldn’t speak English and would bring the whole plane down in an emergency,” according to the complaint. At the same time, the flight attendant allowed the woman’s sister, who does not wear a hijab, to sit in the same seat.
Southwest Airlines said in a statement that people seated in exit rows must be able to perform certain duties, but Southwest does not tolerate discrimination.
“We apologize to any Customer who has a less than positive travel experience on Southwest and will look into the specific passenger situation referenced,” a spokesman said in an email.
Faizan Syed, executive director of CAIR-Texas DFW, said in the press release the situation was “textbook religious discrimination and profiling.”
“You have two sisters, one who wears the hijab and the other who does not, and both board at the same time,” Syed said in the press release. “One is denied the right to sit where she wants, while the other is encouraged to take a seat based on nothing else then perceived religiosity.”
The woman, her sister and attorney Marwa Elbially of Elbially Law Office will speak at a press conference at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the Elbially Law Office in Plano.
