Rabat - American actress Lindsay Lohan, who has been at the heart of a controversy in the US for her decision to study Islam, says she was “racially profiled” at Heathrow airport when security asked her to remove her headscarf.
Rabat – American actress Lindsay Lohan, who has been at the heart of a controversy in the US for her decision to study Islam, says she was “racially profiled” at Heathrow airport when security asked her to remove her headscarf.
In an interview on Good Morning Britain on the British channel ITV, Lindsay Lohan said she was asked to remove the headscarf she was wearing at Heathrow in London on her way back from Turkey recently.
“I was wearing a headscarf and I got stopped at the airport and racially profiled for the first time in my life.”
Talking about the security staff, who approach her as she was queuing for a flight to New York, she added, “She opened my passport and saw ‘Lindsay Lohan’ and started immediately apologizing but then said, ‘Please take off your headscarf.’”
Asked if the incident scared her, Lohan explained that she was “a little intimidated” to be asked to remove the veil, and also thought about the Muslim women who would not be comfortable removing their headscarf in public:
“How would another woman who doesn’t feel comfortable taking off her headscarf feel?” said Lohan, adding, “That was really interesting to me.”
As to her decision to convert to the Islamic faith, which the host of the program, Susanna Reid, enquired about, the American actress stated that she was still undecided. However, she asserted that she has visited a number of Muslim countries and that she feels “comfortable acting the same as the other women,” noting that the veil is a way for her to show respect for the Muslims in these countries.
