Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 12-08-2018
A South African Muslim woman says she’s been left humiliated after she was allegedly asked by a Turkish Airlines stewardess to remove her Islamic face veil on the plane.
Hafidah Ayesha Patel, a humanitarian worker and the wife of renowned Islamic Scholar Qari Ziyaad Patel was flying from in Istanbul to Hatay in Turkey on Monday when the alleged incident occurred.
According to Ayesha, the plane was about to take off when she was approached by the chief air stewardess who asked to lift up her Islamic veil.
“She shook me awake. So I opened my eyes and I looked at her and she spoke in English. She said ‘you need to remove the face covering for take-off and landing for safety. So I said ‘excuse me? She said yes please, you need to remove it, you need to expose your face because your eyes need to be open.’ It was very shocking for me as because something never ever happened like that before.”
Ayesha says she refused to lift her veil before the stewardess stormed off.
Qari Ziyaad Patel says there seems to be an onslaught towards veiled women whose rights are being trampled upon.
“I think they have a fair right to don what they need to don. It’s just quite sad that Turkish Airlines being a carrier that carries so many Muslim women, if they have, this needs to verified, if they have this new rule and regulation, it’s going to be very, very sad and I think they need to revisit the issue and look at it carefully because we cannot undermine the rights of veiled women.”
Turkish Airlines was not immediately available for comment.
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