Indonesian Muslim Woman Forced to Remove Hijab at Airport in Rome

Aghnia Adzkia tells her experience when she was required to open the hijab at Rome Airport.

Rome, 19 Rajab 1438/16 April 2017 (MINA) – 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, /tribune.com.pk reported.

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.

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.”

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.

“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. (T/RS5/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)