Actor Waris Ahluwalia Receives Apology From Airline After Refusing To Take Off Turban

Waris Ahluwalia, the actor and model, refused to board a plane back home to New York City after airport personnel demanded he remove his turban. Ahluwalia wears the turban in observance of his Sikh religion.

Ahluwalia eventually did receive an apology from the airline.

The Mexican airline released a statement that read, “Aeromexico recognises and is proud of the diversity of its passengers. Every day we work to ensure strict compliance with the highest safety standards, while we respect and value the culture and beliefs of our customers. We apologise to Mr Waris Ahluwalia for the bad experience he had with one of our security elements in addressing your flight to New York in the Mexico City International Airport. This case motivates us to ensure that security personnel strengthen its care protocols, always respecting the cultural and religious values ​​of customers.”

After two rounds of intensive searching by Aeromexico, the airline requested he take off his turban but Ahluwalia refused.

“The security person said, ‘Now, will you take off your turban?’” Ahluwalia told The Washington Post, “I said, ‘I won’t be taking off my turban here.’ A group of Aeromexico employees spoke among themselves in Spanish and then one guy came back to me wearing an orange vest over a suit and said, ‘You will not be flying Aeromexico and you will need to book a flight on another airline.’

The model decided not to get angry, but to use the incident to raise awareness on social media. He first took to his Instagram and posted a self portrait with his ticket over his mouth with the caption, “This morning in Mexico City I was told I could not board my @aeromexico flight to NYC because of my turban. #FearisanOpportunitytoEducate #humanrights #dignity #lovenotfear.”

He also posted a second photo with the Aeromexico sign and the caption read, “Dear NYC fashion week. I may be a little late as @aeromexico won’t let me fly with a turban. Don’t start the show without me. #lovenotfear #fearisanopportunitytoeducate.”

 

Ahluwalia continued to updated social media and even collaborated with the Sikh Coalition for a list of demands before he flies home. The Sikh Coalition is a nonprofit advocacy group that works on behalf of followers of the monotheistic faith. His list of demands were “a public apology from Aeromexico, Sihk awareness training for airport security, and training on how to screen passengers with religious headwear.”

The tweet read, “Sikh American actor & designer Waris Ahluwalia was denied entry to @AeroMexico flight this morning. #StandWithWaris”

After his story broke, the airline offered him another ticket and dropped its demands about his turban.

“At this point,” he said, “I realize that this isn’t about my convenience or getting home for lunch today. I realize that if I walk away, somebody else was going to go through this experience again. It doesn’t feel like a choice I can make. I don’t think I can just get on that plane,”