A Swedish woman wearing a Muslim headscarf claims security staff at a small northern airport tugged on her hijab in public rather than take up her offer to take it off away from prying eyes.
“The female guard asked me ‘What’s on your head’,” recalled state employee Saama Sarsour, who told the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper about her treatment at Arvidsjaur airport in northern Sweden.
After the metal detector beeped, Sarsour was asked to remove the cloth. She responded by asking if the guard could first scan the rest of her body and if she could remove her scarf in a different room, not in public.
“Then the woman grabbed the scarf and started yanking it,” Sarsour told SvD. “I was totally shocked.”
Sarsour, who works for the social security agency Skatteverket, and her employer decided to report the female guard to the police, who quickly decided not to open an investigation into harassment.
Airport CEO Ralf Lundberg dodged the question of whether his staff had been taught about religious consideration when he spoke to the paper.
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In 2013 alone, around 300 hate crimes against Muslims were reported in the Scandinavian country.
Last January, a Stockholm mosque came under attack when vandals scrawled swastikas on its doors.
In a gesture of solidarity, bouquets of pink and white flowers were taped over the black swastikas on the doors of the central Stockholm mosque.
The Islamic Workplace 
Posted on April 3, 2014
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