A Muslim -American graduate student of Harvard University was subjected to additional screening by United States airport authorities and was forced to reveal her menstrual pad. She was travelling from Boston to Washington for a speaking engagement. The victim, Zainab Mercant, a US citizen and also the founder and editor of a multimedia web page Zrights Studios, had noticed a pattern in her travel experiences and therefore expected Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to pull her aside and rummahe through her bags. However, the airport security staff unexpectedly pressured her into private screening. Despite informing them that she was on her periods, they demanded that she showed them her manstrual pad. The TSA has repeatedly questioned a muslim woman journalist about her religion and her opinion about writing criticizing government policies. After harrowing experience, she asked TSA staff for their names and badge numbers to report the incident but they did not comply. Following the latest experience, the ACLU lodged a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security and demanded putting an end to such screening. The civilliberties body believed that this was an outcome of her being placed on government watch-list.
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