Sure, if we say the nouns Waris and Ahluwalia together right now, you’d think, “oh, the Sikh who was stopped from boarding a flight in America because of his turban”.
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Ahluwalia, according to the New York Times, said Monday he checked in at the Aeroméxico counter at Mexico City’s global airport about 5:30 a.m. and was given his first-class boarding pass with a code that he said meant he needed secondary security screening.
After Mr. Ahluwalia refused to remove his turban, he was told he would not be permitted to board the flight or fly with the airline. The text said the airline had “issued a directive to its staff regarding the religious significance of the Sikh turban” and planned to ask that the U.S. Transportation Security Administration and the Mexican government implement sensitivity training on religious headwear for airport agents. But the protocal actually calls for removing the turban as a last resort if an alarm is triggered, and removing it requires a private screening area.
Aeroméxico, meanwhile, issued a statement apologising to Ahluwalia “for the bad experience he had with one of our security elements in addressing your flight to NY in the Mexico City International Airport”. Ahluwalia, who has become a favorite in director Wes Anderson’s films and is a practicing Sikh, posted a photo to Instagram of himself on the plane, and thanked the airline “for understanding the importance of religious and cultural tolerance”.
Waris Ahluwalia may make it back to NY in time for Fashion Week after all.
In a statement, AeroMexico said they had offered Ahluwalia alternative routes to NY.
“It’s important for airlines and anyone conducting screenings to understand the level of invasiveness and humiliation involved when you ask a Sikh to remove a turban”, she added.
“I was upset, I had anxiety, I was shaking, I did not speak”, Ahluwalia told CNN.
The airline said it works to maintain strong security measures while respecting its passengers’ cultures and beliefs. The ad had the words “Make Love” on it, but was crossed out and replaced with “Make Bombs”.
The airline also pledged to improve education for employees regarding religious customs. Beneath that, someone scrawled, “Please stop driving TAXIS”. I may be a little late as @aeromexico won’t let me fly with a turban.
“I didn’t ask to be a public face or voice of a religion”. “We support him in his decision for wanting to make this a teachable moment, and I have a lot of respect for him”. “Sikhs have been in (the United States) for over 125 years”, he said.
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“I’m not anti-Aeromexico at all”, he said. “How do we prevent this from happening again, which is essentially the crux of why I’m here”, he said on Tuesday. They did not know.
