Now, pat-down search of your whole body
Friday, 8 January 2010
Maswood Alam Khan
There was a time when a conservative Muslim woman would have preferred death to a touch of her body by anybody other than by her husband. It was unimaginable on the part of a Muslim woman to move outside of her home without cloaking her entire body with a 'burkha' and wrapping a curtain around the passenger seat of a vehicle where she would sit to travel. Getting photographed was also deemed sinful. Hiding body for both man and woman is a ritual a Muslim must follow who strictly adheres to all the tenets and practices of Islam.
But time has changed. And the change of time in near future would be horrendous for Muslims, especially for Muslim women, who have to travel abroad. A Muslim passenger, man or woman, must now be prepared to get his or her body -- if necessary, in his or her birthday suit -- thoroughly checked by both machines and human hands.
Airline passengers from now on will undergo full body scans as security measures are being stepped up after the alleged plan to blow up a plane on the Christmas Day. First of all you will be x-rayed by a special scanning machine to get a detailed contour map of your body which is called "Whole Body Imaging" to see whether you are carrying anything dangerous underneath the exterior of your visible costumes or your invisible under-wears. If you are from any of the red alert countries, which are mostly Muslim countries, there is 100 percent possibility that you will be invited to enter a room for a more thorough "private" search behind screens which is called a pat-down search of the curves, holes, and crevices in your whole body, especially in your crotch areas.
It is conventional that a TSO (Transportation Security Officer) of the same gender as the passenger wearing gloves will do the pat-down search in such a way that such search may not constitute sexual assault. But, if the TSO somehow senses that you are from a developing country and you are desperate to see the Statue of Liberty in America or the Eiffel Tower in Paris or trying to get immigration status in Germany or America, God knows, what the TSO will do with his or her ungloved hands and fingers!
(Maswood Alam Khan is Editorial Consultant of The Financial Express. maswood@hotmail.com)
There was a time when a conservative Muslim woman would have preferred death to a touch of her body by anybody other than by her husband. It was unimaginable on the part of a Muslim woman to move outside of her home without cloaking her entire body with a 'burkha' and wrapping a curtain around the passenger seat of a vehicle where she would sit to travel. Getting photographed was also deemed sinful. Hiding body for both man and woman is a ritual a Muslim must follow who strictly adheres to all the tenets and practices of Islam.
But time has changed. And the change of time in near future would be horrendous for Muslims, especially for Muslim women, who have to travel abroad. A Muslim passenger, man or woman, must now be prepared to get his or her body -- if necessary, in his or her birthday suit -- thoroughly checked by both machines and human hands.
Airline passengers from now on will undergo full body scans as security measures are being stepped up after the alleged plan to blow up a plane on the Christmas Day. First of all you will be x-rayed by a special scanning machine to get a detailed contour map of your body which is called "Whole Body Imaging" to see whether you are carrying anything dangerous underneath the exterior of your visible costumes or your invisible under-wears. If you are from any of the red alert countries, which are mostly Muslim countries, there is 100 percent possibility that you will be invited to enter a room for a more thorough "private" search behind screens which is called a pat-down search of the curves, holes, and crevices in your whole body, especially in your crotch areas.
It is conventional that a TSO (Transportation Security Officer) of the same gender as the passenger wearing gloves will do the pat-down search in such a way that such search may not constitute sexual assault. But, if the TSO somehow senses that you are from a developing country and you are desperate to see the Statue of Liberty in America or the Eiffel Tower in Paris or trying to get immigration status in Germany or America, God knows, what the TSO will do with his or her ungloved hands and fingers!
(Maswood Alam Khan is Editorial Consultant of The Financial Express. maswood@hotmail.com)