By Samah Khan.
Islamic Travel Columnist

This Thanksgiving holiday called for a much needed mini vacation to get away from the stress of everyday life. So my friend and I decided to visit a friend of ours, Iman, who had moved to Virginia after she had gotten married a couple years ago.

Iman told us to be wary of security at Virginia’s airport because of a recent incident that had happened to her when she was going for a week-long vacation in Jamaica. Her husband was easily let through customs, however when he turned back to wait for his wife, he saw that she was being led away by two female security officers into a room. He exasperatedly asked the security officer why they were taking his wife away and they replied, “for her safety”. After waiting a few minutes, one of the female security officers emerged from the room that Iman was taken into, with a cloth delicately held in her hands – a cloth that Iman’s husband quickly recognized as his wife’s hijab. He watched in confusion as the security officer put the scarf through the scanner and asked what was going on.

“We’re checking the scarf for any chemicals or you know – bombs.”

This was odd because the scarf was just a thin piece of cloth and any physical object that it could have been hiding could have clearly been seen with the naked eye.

Iman’s husband expressed his frustration and his wife’s embarrassment and security ended up apologizing because they had no bases for the search. “It was for her own safety”, was all that they kept repeating.

Hearing this story, my friend and I were quite worrisome about how our treatment would be at the airport in Virginia.

Since this was just going to be a two day trip, all I packed was a backpack full of essentials and made my way to Toronto Pearson Airport at 7:30AM after praying Fajr. I met up with my friend there and we boarded the plane at 9:00AM on a flight that took us straight to Virginia. Upon landing, we made our way through the airport, past security checks where the people were surprisingly nice. They happily asked us how we were doing and made conversation and helped us with all our questions.

Iman picked us up from the airport and drove us to her house, where we would be staying. With only 2 days for vacation, we wasted no time resting. We prayed Salah al Qasr and headed straight to Williamsburg Premium Outlets Stores where we did a ton of shopping. We ate out at a halal afghan kabob restaurant and resumed shopping. The next day pretty much was the same as we took advantage of America’s less expensive prices.

Monday morning we prayed Fajr and made our way back to Virginia’s airport where we again received extremely hospitable treatment. We took a flight straight back to Pearson Airport and arrived at 10:00AM.