I was a bit apprehensive about traveling to the United States this summer for our annual vacation, especially since our flight was into JFK, New York. My sister phoned me especially to tell me not to wear traditional Islamic dress — the veil and black cloak known as the hijab. "Americans can’t differentiate between Asians and Arabs. If you wear the hijab they will think you are an Arab and give you a tough time at immigration and customs."
I wore a shalwar kameez and shoulder scarf. But my daughter refused to relinquish her hijab. "This is what I wear everyday and I don’t care what the Americans think. They can check all they want, I’ve nothing to hide," she said.
My husband’s Saudi friend who often goes to the United States for vacations chose to go elsewhere. His reason? "I don’t want to be finger-printed."
To relax a bit, we decided to break the journey in Istanbul. We had a wonderful time there. It was great to visit the Topkapi Palace museum. Everything in Turkey, I noticed, seems to have a minaret!
I particularly loved Turkish food. It felt strange sitting in a restaurant with a menu on which you understood not a single word! I told the waiter at the restaurant that it was our first visit to Istanbul and that I wanted to eat some Turkish food. To my amazement he came back with the owner who welcomed us, then gave us a sample of all kinds of delicious food. "Turkish/Pakistani brothers," he said in broken English, giving a big hug to my husband! Then he sent us some Turkish coffee on the house. Everywhere we went we were greeted with such affection and politeness it was unbelievable.
The love and affection ended at immigration as we were leaving Istanbul. When we handed our passports to the officer there, he gave us a quizzical look. "Traveling to New York?" He then examined our passports. "You were born in India," he said looking at my husband, "your wife was born in Bangladesh and your kids in America..." The immigration officer then directed us to a group of people who checked our luggage with a fine tooth comb. One woman in particular was quite amazed to see my electric toothbrush. I could hear her call out to her colleagues and show off the toothbrush with child-like enthusiasm. After the search was completed and nothing incriminating had been found, I thought we would be allowed to go. "Now I will call my supervisor," a young man informed us. And the whole process was repeated! Our passports were re-examined and our luggage rechecked!
I was amazed when we landed at JFK and we were out in five minutes! Then when it was time to take the connecting domestic flight to Columbus, Ohio, we were told by United Airlines personnel that our hand luggage would have to be searched and I was amazed at the speed with which everything went. Our three pieces of luggage were searched in under five minutes. The baggage screeners were mostly Hispanics, Indians and some Somali Muslims in hijab!
Just before boarding our flight to Ohio, I noticed Federal Marshals with Stenguns near the jet way. A few passengers were selected at random and their hand luggage searched. We were always chosen for that honor and my hijab-wearing daughter who was also wearing lots of metal jewelry was always frisked the longest!
I noticed during our travel within the United States that people did not show any hostility. They were still warm and friendly. My friends and family told me that their American neighbors and colleagues called them or visited them and assured them that there was nothing to worry about. "My neighbor even offered to do my grocery shopping if I was feeling uneasy," Maliha, a Pakistani-American told me. "The Islamic Center was vandalized and that really scared us, but the community came together and everyone condemned the act. And the synagogue close to the mosque gave us space to have Qur’an classes while the mosque was being repaired."
One thing that I saw which was different in the US and which I had never seen in my previous years there was an INS inspection. One day as I walked into a store in a mall, a big, dark-green vehicle pulled up with a red light flashing. Out of it came a man wearing ordinary clothes, but on his chest was a badge which told me he was some kind of official. He stopped an employee of the store who was taking shopping carts inside and asked to see his documents.
I was told that the INS is really tightening its noose around illegals. Almost 12,000 illegal Pakistanis were caught. "I am glad about the crackdown on illegals" one Pakistani-American told me. "They have no business being here. They misuse the system. They give us legal residents a bad name and reputation."
Our return journey too went smoothly. Our luggage at O’Hare Airport in Chicago was screened but not hand- searched. We were queasy about catching our flight to Saudi Arabia from Istanbul because of our previous experience but a miracle happened! The immigration officer recognized us after a gap of 24 days! Then we flew on to Bahrain.
How long it took us to cross the Bahraini-Saudi border and get home to Alkhobar is another story. It is a long and tiring one and, to say the least, there were no polite characters in it.