Muslim woman forced to remove hijab at airport in Rome

Aghnia filmed her experience, claims nuns passed through security without removing headscarves; watch video here


News Desk April 15, 2017
Screengrab from the Aghnia's video showing a woman airport security official who asked her to remove the hijab as it was not 'safe'.

A Muslim woman said on Friday she was forced by airport security staff in Rome to remove her hijab to get on a flight to London.

Aghnia Adzkia, an Indonesian citizen, also filmed her experience at Ciampino Airport where she said she faced discrimination as a Muslim since she saw the staff allowing nuns to pass through the security without removing their headscarves.

In the video she was able to make, she can be heard asking the staff to show her the law which states that a hijab must be removed at the security check.

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All a woman security official could say was: “You are not safe. You could hide something in your hair. If you don’t take it off, we do not know if there’s something inside, okay? You are not safe for us.”
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Aghnia was then asked to go to a private room along with security personnel so that her hijab could be checked. She refused and contended that being a Muslim, she was being unfairly targeted.

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“I wasn’t prepared to trust them unless they could cite me a law or provide me with a legal document saying they were authorised to check what is underneath of my hijab,” she wrote on her Facebook profile.

“It is a matter of human dignity and rights. For what reason they asked me to take off my hijab?”

The Indonesian citizen then booked another flight from another airport in the same city only to face the same situation again. This time when she was asked to remove her hijab, she obliged to get on the flight.

The article originally appeared on The Sun

COMMENTS (26)

Amber | 7 years ago | Reply @Zafar Butt: because she did set off the alarm. no matter who the heck you are, if that thing beeps you better be ready to get checked thoroughly. It's not so hard to understand.
Amber | 7 years ago | Reply @Vishal: she did set off the alarm and never complied even when she was offered a room for privacy and an officer of the same sex to check, that's why she was removed from the airport...and that's also why she erased her FB post lying about the alarm not going off as soon as the official statement from Rome came to light.
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