Anila Daulatzai, a professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art, was forcibly removed from a Southwest Airlines flight on September 26th from BWI to L.A. She’s now claiming it was racially and religiously charged by the airline employees as well as the authorities.
Daulatzai had complained about a service dog that was present in the cabin and says that she informed them of a life-threatening pet allergy.
She could not produce any documentation supporting this claim nor nothing which stated it was unsafe for her to fly with animals. The flight attendants told her she could leave the plane but she refused and then Maryland Transportation Authority police officers were called to take her off the aircraft.
In a statement released Wednesday, Daulatzai’s attorneys charged that she was “profiled, abused, interrogated, detained, and subjected to false reporting and the trauma of racist, vitriolic public shaming precisely because she is a woman, a person of color, and a Muslim.”
“She survived sexism, racial profiling, and police brutality that fateful day,” reads the statement from Hall & Sethi, a law firm based in Reston, Va., that specializes in cases of personal injury. “Her mistreatment was particularly distressing because she is presently pregnant with her first child.”
“Her removal from the flight had nothing to do with allergies or safety concerns. Professor Daulatzai was profiled, abused, interrogated, detained, and subjected to false reporting and the trauma of racist, vitriolic public shaming precisely because she is a woman, a person of color, and a Muslim. This endangered the physical and emotional well-being of a pregnant woman, researcher, and teacher.”
https://youtu.be/kyUiPcggHnc
Maryland Transportation Authority Police have come forward, defending themselves, saying… “[d]espite her clear attempt to resist a law enforcement officer, Ms. Daulatzai was professionally removed from the aircraft within the guidelines of the MDTA Police. This remains an open case that will be handled in the appropriate venue, not through various media channels.”