Southwest Flight Attendant Accused of Mistreating Muslim Woman on Flight from Houston to D.C.

A British journalist angrily tweeted about how his family's Thanksgiving holiday was ruined by alleged racist behavior by a flight attendant aboard their Southwest flight from Houston to Washington, D.C. on December 2.

Mehdi Hasan, whose family is Muslim, claimed that his wife was humiliated and in tears when the flight attendant reportedly said her headscarf made other people feel uncomfortable after she asked to be seated next to her family.

According to his Twitter page, Hasan is a British journalist who is a columnist with The Intercept based in Washington.

In a Twitter thread, Hasan posted, "The flight attendant called ground staff onto the plane, complained about the Muslim woman - my wife! - to them, & escalated rather than de-escalated the situation - simply because my wife politely asked a guy if he'd give up his seat for our family (which he was fine with!)."

Hasan also posted that even the ground crew couldn't understand why the flight attendant was making a fuss, and other passengers reportedly told his wife that the flight attendant "treated you like a venomous snake."

In a statement from Southwest Airlines, representative Brandi King stated that this issue was about the family members who had already boarded trying to save seats for other members.

"The family boarded the aircraft at different times," said King. "Our reports indicate that there was a disagreement among passengers as the family members who boarded the aircraft first attempted to save seats for Mr. Hasan and his son who had not yet boarded the plane."

According to King, the flight crew requested assistance from a customer service supervisor to help straighten-out the seat selection problem on the plane.

"When the Supervisor arrived (after boarding was complete), the flight crew reported that the situation had been resolved and the supervisor confirmed the same with the passengers," said King. "Our flight attendants made sure that Mr. Hasan and his family were able to sit together on their flight that arrived in Washington, D.C. that Sunday night as scheduled."

Regarding Mr. Hasan’s claims, Southwest said it neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind.

But Hasan disagreed with the explanation. He later tweeted, "This is false. There was no disagreement, only a flight attendant who was trying to incite passengers against my hijab-wearing wife."

Danny Hermosillo is the Digital News Editor for Chron.com | Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @Dannyherm1| Email him at [email protected]

———

©2019 the Houston Chronicle

Visit the Houston Chronicle at www.chron.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.