A Southwest Airlines passenger plane prepares to take off from Denver International Airport as seen from a passenger plane landing at the airport on September 7, 2016. (Photo: Robert Alexander / Getty Images)
Millions of people have now watched the video of Anila Daulatzai, a pregnant 46-year-old college professor, getting dragged off a Southwest Airlines plane on September 26 at Thurgood Marshall Airport in Baltimore. After it happened, the airline put out a statement alleging that Daulatzai had been legitimately removed because of a life-threatening allergy to dogs and her not possessing a medical certificate stating it was safe for her to travel; a service dog accompanied another passenger on the flight. In this way, Southwest sought to justify the forced removal of Daulatzai, who is from a South Asian background, and blame her for the incident.
Since the incident, Daulatzai has offered her version of what happened. She said that while she does have an allergy to dogs, it is not one that is life threatening. Southwest allows passengers to choose their seats upon boarding and Daulatzai was happy to find a seat away from the dog. However, according to Daulatzai, Southwest representatives did not believe her statements about her allergy and ordered her off the plane. She attempted to negotiate a reasonable solution, but appears to have come up against a perception that, as a woman of color, she was just meant to follow orders without discussion. Maryland Transportation Authority Police (MTAP) officers then boarded the plane, violently removed her from her seat and dragged her through the aircraft. The MTAP officers ignored her repeated protests that she was pregnant.
Daulatzai was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, failure to obey a reasonable and lawful order, disturbing the peace, obstructing and hindering a police officer and resisting arrest. As the video of the incident went viral, Daulatzai received hate mail, racist messages and death threats….