Muslim woman forced to show her bloody pad during airport search

As life becomes increasingly unbearable for immigrants (both legal and undocumented), African Americans as well as the Muslim community, in yet another horrendous incident, Zainab Merchant, a young Muslim woman, was allegedly forced to show The Transportation Security Administration a bloodied pad during a pat down session at an airport in Boston, in the United States, The Cut reports. 

Zainab reveals that she was travelling from Boston and was headed to Washington for an event at at which she was due to speak, and was already, understandably nervous, HuffPost reveals. Because of past travels, she already had an idea of what to expect.

The Harvard graduate student has, according to ACLU.org, specialised in journalism and is the founder of Zainab Rights, a media organisation that focuses on current and political issues. It was not the first time she had endured discriminatory behaviour. On one of her trips, she was stopped at the border and US customs clearance centre on her way to Canada. 

Zainab has previously written about her harrowing experiences for The Washington Post, asking various around what she's endured. "Am I being stopped because I am Muslim, or because my family once travelled to Iran to visit a holy shrine? Is it because of my criticism of U.S. policies on the multimedia website I run to raise awareness about injustices around the world? Maybe it’s all three."

She also touches on the fact that because this has become such a pattern in her life, she's had to adapt the way she travels. It's forced her to arrive at the airport at least three hours before her travel time to have enough time to get "cleared."

She's used to having her bags rummaged through (sometimes several times) and enduring aggressive pat downs, but what would be an all-time degrading low for her, was the fact that during this pat down, when an officer touched her crotch area, "then called for a 'deeper look'".