Flying While Muslim: Does Discrimination Lead to Poor Health?

By Andrea Useem

Last week, a Senate subcommittee heard about the harassment Muslim Americans are subjected to while flying. Farhana Khera, director of a Muslim legal advocacy organization, shared stories of law-abiding citizens who were detained, searched, and interrogated about their political opinions while traveling.

As a Muslim American, I have to alter my behavior to avoid those kinds of situations. Flying to and from Wisconsin this past weekend for a wedding, my husband and I encountered the usual problems of air travel: a delayed flight; our 2-year-old, who refused to sit down. But being Muslims, we had to tackle another kind of logistics: At the Milwaukee airport, where I couldn’t quickly find a chapel, we offered our afternoon prayers in a dimly lit and somewhat stinky baby-changing room rather than pray in public and risk being questioned or even barred from our flight. Read More