Posted on 12/09/2007 9:22:51 PM PST by Clive
'I 'd like a one-way air fare to New York on the next available flight. I have no luggage. Could you make sure the ticket is refundable … in case I change my mind?"
I was standing at the Delta shuttle counter at Washington's Reagan National Airport, dressed in my Saudi burka.
"Sure, no problem," the clerk replied brightly. "Do you have Skymiles?" "Uh, no."
"I'll need some form of identification."
I handed her my driver's licence, which showed the occupant of the black tent to be a blonde, blue-eyed resident of the District of Columbia.
"Thanks." Tap, tap, tap at the keyboard. Out popped my boarding pass. "Have a great flight. Next passenger please."
I scooped up a plain black canvas carry-on bag and headed over to the security line. I had no intention of flying to New York. This was an experiment. I'd become suspicious of the lack of suspicion I'd received during my week-long veiling. I'd encountered no fear, no hostility, hardly even any curiosity. If anything, my fellow Washingtonians showed unusual courtesy to a woman in a burka.
And so it continued at the airport. The ticket agent had registered zero reaction when I'd approached the counter, except to offer an extra cheerful greeting: "Hi! Where are you travelling?"
It had been the same the day before on the Washington subway. I entered the train at morning rush hour carrying a large black backpack, which I clutched to my chest in the centre of the train. With the exception of one elderly passenger who bolted up from his seat when I got on, scurrying to the most remote end of the carriage, everyone else aboard resolutely ignored my appearance. The woman closest to my mysterious backpack glanced up and then resumed her BlackBerrying.
I can't know what they were thinking, obviously. A few must have wondered whether I was about to explode. But evidently they'd rather be blown up than exhibit any behaviour that might be construed as intolerant.
And good for them, I suppose. "The vast majority of Muslims abhor terrorism," we are frequently reminded, and of course that's true. And yet, even tolerance can be taken too far.
If I had chosen to walk about Washington in a white hood and sheets, rather than black ones, I doubt I would have encountered such universal politeness. And yet, what the Klan outfit represents to someone of African-American descent is exactly what the burka should represent to every free woman.
Those who impose it upon women believe that a whole category of human beings can be treated as property; that this category may be beaten, sold into marriage, divorced at whim, denied education and work, raped with impunity and stoned to death for offences that would be pardoned in a man. For the wearer of the white hood, the subjugated category is defined by race. For the wearer of the black hood, it's defined by sex.
Ironically, the few people who exhibited hostility to my costume came from a particular Muslim immigrant group. Many of Washington's taxi drivers originated in Somalia. These drivers glowered at me in traffic. When I tried to hail a cab, four empty taxis drove past without stopping. My teenage son then stepped forward to flag one--and was picked up immediately.
Or maybe it's not so ironic: I'm sure many of those drivers fled their countries to escape the ideology represented by my burka. The native-born Americans, however, seemed determined to take the opposite view: To welcome me as a walking tribute to religious and ethnic tolerance in our free society.
Ditto for the security agents at Reagan National airport. The officer who checked my identification hailed me with a friendly "And how are you doing today, ma'am?" He drew a red mark on my boarding pass. "You know the deal," he said, ushering me on.
I nodded, but thought, "Uh oh. What deal?" Maybe now I was to be regarded with suspicion?
Before I'd even approached the metal detector, I heard a voice over the loudspeaker say, "Female assistance in Aisle 4."
OK, now I was nervous. I wasn't sure how far I was willing to take this experiment. Certainly not so far as an internal examination …
A female guard signalled me to walk through the metal detector and then to enter a Plexiglas passage off to the side. She said -- So nicely! And with such a big smile! -- "You have been selected for secondary screening," as if I'd won a grocery-store sweepstakes.
I waited in the passage for about five minutes. Another extremely pleasant female guard -- "Right this way, hon" -- directed me to an open search area just beyond the detectors. A grandfatherly man was already there, another lucky recipient of secondary screening.
Now two female guards -- still friendly but definitely brisker in manner -- told me to stand with my legs apart on a small mat. One of the guards began riffling through my passport while the other hesitated in front of me.
"Should I wand her?" "Yes."
"She didn't set off the alarm." The guard was clearly uncomfortable that she may be breaching some sort of protocol. "Wand her."
The guard obeyed, but not before saying to me, gently, "If it goes off you'll have to be physically patted in that area, OK?"
I then received the most thorough wanding I'd ever had. At no time, however, did they ask me to lift my cloak. They did it all through the burka. A male guard came over to inspect my tote bag. The woman wanding me said, apologetically, "He's going to touch your things but he'll have gloves on, OK?"
The guard who had been examining my passport pulled up a chair for me and another one for herself. She smiled again.
"I hope you know we're not doing this because you're dressed -- you know -- the way you are. It's because, well, your face on your identification is not what you'd expect for someone …in that kind of dress." "I understand."
"May I ask you -- and I don't want to cause offence, OK? So just let me know if I'm crossing a line here--but are you a convert?"
I couldn't tell if she was asking me this because she was trying to check my "story" -- and thus assess my security risk -- or whether she was just being chatty to pass the time until my bag returned. I assumed the former.
"Yes," I said. (This was true. I am a convert, just not to Islam.)
My answer unleashed a gush of questions about my beliefs and my outfit -- "What drew you to your faith?" "Do all women have to dress like this? Because not all of them do obviously …" -- each one of them painstakingly phrased so as not to "cause offence," and always with the option not to answer. The male guard returned with my bag and stood listening a few feet away.
"This is really interesting," he interjected. "We don't usually get to hear about this."
It was at this point I realized my security inspection was over, and I was now conducting an Islamic tutorial: Burkas 101.
Then the female guard, growing cautious again, asked if it was "culturally OK" for me to remove my face covering. "When women like you come through, we don't know what's 'correct.' Like if I want to see that your face matches your ID, can I ask you to show me your face?"
It's a good thing I was wearing a mask so the guard could not see my astonishment. The security agents at the airport serving the nation's capital -- bare seconds of air distance from Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, the White House -- did not feel entitled to check the identities of veiled women. Clearly, they hadn't even received any special sort of instructions about it.
I assured the security agent that it was indeed OK for a woman officer to ask a veiled woman to show her face. More than OK!
The guard nodded. "Thank you -- you've been so helpful," she said, rising. "We don't want to keep you. Hey, have a great time in New York!"
And so I passed through security without ever having to show my face.
Fortunately, my ticket was refundable. Just as the friendly Delta agent had promised.
danielle@daniellecrittenden.com - Washington-based author and journalist Danielle Crittenden's latest novel is The President's Secret IMs.
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We are a nation of cowards. They have won.
Oh dear lord...
Tolerance my ass. Diversity my ass. This is all just sheer cowardice. We have become so afraid of offending one another that we are opening our society to true dangers.
Although this is mainly a shot at the TSA, who seem to hire High school drop outs and then entrust all Air Passenger safety to them, it’s an excellent condemnation of the P.C. madness that our society has descended into.
Preference to be dead, but not offend anyone.
>>>We are a nation of cowards. They have won.<<<
Maybe where you are. I think the rest of us aren’t so willing to go peacefully into that dark night known as dhimmitude.
[... evidently they’d rather be blown up than exhibit
any behaviour that might be construed as intolerant...]
We’re DOOMED!!! ... er ... I mean, we’re BOOMED!!!
We will be destroyed in the name of Political Correctness!
TSA agents, normally so rude, are polite to a woman in a burka...
Nah, not worth it. I’ll keep my miniskirt, boots, and blouse, and take the rudeness from airport security.
A mentally-challenged 12 year old could sneak a nuclear weapon into this country. Don’t be surprised when one or more cities are turned to ash and smoke in the next few years. It’s on the way.
Exploding person bump
My daughter is normally an in your face, get that weak crap out of here, who’s your supervisor - kind of person.
2 male TSA agents ask her to take off her sweater (she had a tank type bra on underneath) in the regular security line. No behind the curtain stuff, no female agents..just out in the open for all to see.
She complied, with much embarrassment, cause she said she would have missed her flight if she didn’t.
Didn’t want to miss a flight? How nuts is her logic ?
She didn’t get any names, but thinks she can ID them.
Supposedly she has a friend who’s a mucky-muck with DHS and she’s gunna pitch a bitch.
Guess we have to have another talk with her...
If I were to see a woman in a burqa carrying a large black backpack I would be very interested & I would get the he11 away from her asap. I would also be telling somebody to check her out...Whatever happened to the be on the alert for strange backpacks? Is it normal for burqa wearers to even carry backpacks?
This is not surprising. The “security” we have is like a play date. It is mostly pretend and too often the people most annoyed and put out are the least likely to be a threat. It is like when they used to ask if your luggage had been with you the whole time. Is anyone going to answer, “Well as a matter of fact No, there was a nice gentlemen who asked me to carry this on for him”. Guns and other dangerous weapons routinely go missing in checked luggage because they don’t have a thorough screening system for employees. All I can say is that we are very lucky that Al Qaeda is more interested in what is going on in Iraq than trying to blow up airplanes.
I don’t think its even normal for a burqa wearer to be out and about unescorted by a man.
I live in DC (well Alexandria, VA. close enough). I suspect she didn’t get much of a reaction here because it’s fricken DC. It an international city. I’ve seen all kinds a people dressed in all kinds of ways. Its just isn’t a big deal if you live here. I’m more concerned with punks in gangs than some chick in a burka. There were a gaggle of foreign gals with there heads covered (but not wearing a burka) on the subway the other night. They were middle easterners of some sort, definitly muslim, but I couldn’t really tell where they were from. The idea that they were terrorsts never came to my mind. One of them was kind of cute :-). Hey, I’m a single guy. I notice stuff like that.
The security at the airport doesn’t sound encouraging though, assuming the article is accurate.
I've been saying for a long time that, when that happens, the fake tolerance will disappear and things will go completely the other way. The discrimination that scum like CAIR claim is already here will be. Anyone in a Burkha or who kind of looks muslim will be hounded into hiding.
And the real terrorists will be the first ones in line to persecute them, in order to "prove" that they're really loyal citizens. And yet more cities will be annihilated.
You're just saying that because at many international airports, the CBPOs who work egress aren't equipped with Personal Radiation Detectors.
http://www.cbp.gov/xp/CustomsToday/2005/nov_dec/radiation.xml
If we actually equipped every CBPO with a PRD, we'd have to train them, and equip them with batteries. Those batteries are a real budget buster,2DV. We're better off not knowing if nukes are coming in the country.
In this county yes they do. In many Muslim countries they don’t. A male relative must be with them at all times outside of the house. The converted ones walk around alone all the time. It doesn’t make me feel very safe that they can now say no to lifting their veils either. How are we to know just who is inside of that burqa?
I sure hope you are wrong, but I’ve feared what you say all along.....
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