By Liam cole
(NEWS NATION USA) A North Texas woman says she was discriminated against by a flight attendant from Southwest Airlines.
Fatima Altakrouri, a Muslim woman born and raised in the United States, says she was barred from sitting in an exit row seat because she was wearing a traditional hijab.
“It shouldn’t happen,” Altakrouri said during a news conference Tuesday.
Altakrouri, and her sister Muna Kowni, both Muslim Americans, were on their way home from a personal trip to Florida on May 22.
“My mother was in critical ICU,” Altakrouri said.
They say they’d just boarded a flight from Fort Lauderdale to Dallas when they were told by a flight attendant that Altakrouri couldn’t sit in an exit row seat because she couldn’t speak English, even though she says she was.
“That’s what makes it even more appalling,” Altakrouri said.
Then, their attorney Marwa Elbially says the flight attendant said the flight attendant commented to nearby passengers that Altakrouri would “bring down the plane in an emergency because she doesn’t speak English.”
“To me, that made me look like I am some kind of a terrorist. I am not,” Altakrouri said.