Southwest Airlines crew prohibited woman from sitting in exit row for wearing hijab: complaint

On Tuesday, WFAA reported that a Muslim woman is complaining a Southwest Airlines flight attendant discriminated against her for wearing the traditional hijab headscarf, barring her from sitting in the exit row.

"Fatima Altakrouri said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon that she and her sister wanted to sit next to each other in two empty seats on the emergency exit row as they were boarding the May 22 flight to Dallas," reported Eline de Bruijn and Kevin Reece. "They ended up returning to their original separate seats after the flight attendant allegedly denied Fatima. She said they have filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation."

According to Altakrouri, the flight attendant told her she couldn't sit in the exit row because she "couldn't speak English and would bring the whole plane down in an emergency" — even though she was born and raised in the U.S. and spoke English to the attendant. Her sister, who was not wearing a hijab, was permitted to sit in the row.

"I took it just as a terrorist comment," said Altakrouri. "If I were to say something like that, I would be kicked off the plane. I don't understand why she would say something like that. That makes me look like I am some kind of terrorist and I am not."

This is not the first incident of alleged discrimination on the airline. In 2016, the Council on American-Islamic Relations alleged that a Muslim student was kicked off a Southwest flight for speaking Arabic.