This makes me so mad I want to shake somebody.
In the latest complaint of discrimination on airlines, a U.S. citizen-Muslim of Pakistani descent says she was booted off a Southwest flight because a stewardess claimed she heard her say, “It’s a go,” on her cell phone. Actually, Irum Abbasi says, she said, “I’ve got to go,” because the plane was preparing for departure.
…
Abbasi, a graduate student in psychology at San Jose State, claims Southwest Airlines kicked her off a March 13 flight from San Diego to San Jose because of the stewardess’ complaint. She says she was “readily identifiable as Muslim by what she wore” on Flight 1950: “a long shirt, pants, sweater and hijab, or Islamic headscarf.”
…
She says she told the TSA agent “that failure to make that flight would cause her to miss a critical research experiment that she was conducting,” and for which she had come to San Diego. But she was not allowed to reboard, and was given a voucher for the 10:55 a.m. flight.
She says she arrived at San Jose State at 1:25 p.m., almost 4 hours late, 25 minutes after her experiment was to begin, by which time most of her subjects had left.
Citizen-Muslim Sues Southwest Airlines (Click-through to read the whole brief story. I would be remiss to copypasta it all here.)
If I’d been complicit in booting an innocent woman from a plane, I’d feel pretty uncomfortable sitting next to her, too.
STOP BOOTING PEOPLE FROM PLANES BECAUSE THEY MAKE YOU “UNCOMFORTABLE.” The cure for uncomfortable is to strike up a conversation. It’s NOT booting a fellow human from a plane.
Interesting she was booted from happened in March, and apparently I am hearing about this only because she’s bringing a case to court. Good work, Ms. Abbasi. I hope you get everything you seek.
