BENGALURU: An Indian woman travelling to Iceland from Bengaluru last week, was asked to strip by security officers, at the Frankfurt airport. In a Facebook post, she detailed the incident which took place on March 29. Shruti Basappa had cleared the full body scan, and still, security authorities had their doubts. She told them she was willing to go through a pat down search but requested they be gentle about it as she had an abdominal surgery about two weeks back.
“I was asked to remove the dress I was wearing. Yes. Remove my clothes. Is this the new norm? Isn't it enough to always be the one random person picked out of line that now I need to wrap my head around the fact that I might be asked to strip? Do I need to wax my legs? Do I need to carefully put together a special 'for travel lingerie' set that has nothing to do with seducing my husband but more about hiding the outrage, anger, humiliation and disgust that is an inevitable part of travelling through airports?” Basappa wrote in the post.
What made things worse, was the shift in attitude once the officers met with her Icelandic husband. The strip search was immediately changed into a pat down. She said the change in the security officer's approach made “this whole thing worse for me. How was I not a threat then? I dread to think if I was alone or my husband not European what would have happened?” she asked.
The 30 year old said she had already filed a formal complaint at the airport after her humiliation, but hadn't heard from them since.
