Muslim Woman Says She Felt Humiliated After Being Asked to Remove Hijab at Toronto Airport
Kazi Amin was returning from a family visit to Bangladesh with her husband and children when she was stopped by an airline employee after clearing customs. Amin said the staff member claimed her face did not match the photo on her passport, which was issued in 2016 before she began wearing the hijab.
“The airline employee took my passport, looked at my passport, looked at me, and said that my passport doesn't match my face, so I have to remove my [hijab],” Amin said in an interview, Radio-Canada reported on Friday.
Despite efforts by Amin and her husband to explain the religious significance of the hijab, she said the employee insisted she remove it in public. “I don’t know what else I could do. I removed my hijab in public… We are not allowed to remove our hijab in public. We can only remove our hijab in front of our family,” she said.
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Her daughter, Afsara Raidah, criticized the reasoning behind the request. “I'm blond right now. I can go back to being dark-haired — so is she going to go and make me bleach my hair right then and there before I board the aircraft? It doesn't make sense,” she said.
According to the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), passengers are not required to remove religious head coverings unless they trigger an alarm during screening. If a further search is necessary, CATSA states it should be conducted in a private area. Amin said she was not given this option.
Flair Airlines stated that the staff member involved works for its ground services partner, AGI, and is currently on leave while the incident is under investigation. “We expect all service partners to uphold the same standards of respect, professionalism and non-discrimination that we require of our own team,” said Flair CEO Maciej Wilk in a statement.
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AGI has issued a formal apology to Amin. However, Raidah described the apology as vague and impersonal, and said her family is consulting legal counsel. “There’s a lot of other people that have gone through a similar situation, and it’s not just Muslim women,” she said. “Staff should be trained properly.”
Source: Agencies
