Another day, >another case of Islamophobic vetting at American airports...
This time, it seems like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has reached a new low, having allegedly forced a Muslim-American woman to pull down her pants and reveal her bloodied menstrual pad.
The story came to light after it was exclusively reported by >Huffington Post's Rowaida Abdelaziz, who spoke with Zainab Merchant, the 27-year-old Harvard graduate student and founder of the website Zainab Rights who was subjected to this kind of treatment.
According to the Huffington Post, Merchant said she was traveling from Boston when a female TSA officer publicly touched her groin area during a security check.
The officer then insisted on taking "a deeper look" and led Merchant to a private room, despite the latter's asserting that she was wearing a menstrual pad because she was on her period.
Merchant was then allegedly asked to pull down her pants and expose her underwear to several TSA officers, revealing her bloodstained menstrual pad.
Merchant added that the officers covered their badges and refused to give her their names and numbers when she asked for them.
Merchant often faces what the ACLU described as "excessive and humiliating searches"
In an op-ed published in the Washington Post earlier this month by Merchant, the> author and journalist recalled the various occasions during which she faced additional screening at U.S. airports.
In one incident, Merchant and her family were allegedly detained in a warehouse overnight after returning to the country from Canada.
"Am I being stopped because I am Muslim, or because my family once traveled to Iran to visit a holy shrine? Is it because of my criticism of U.S. policies on the multimedia website I run to raise awareness about injustices around the world? Maybe it's all three," Merchant wrote in her piece.
As a result, Merchant has lodged a formal complaint with the Department of Homeland Security, with the help of the >American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU,) a nonprofit legal and advocacy organization.
Social media outrage
The incident has sparked outrage online, with social media users condemning the TSA and expressing their support for Merchant: