racial profiling

Lindsay Lohan Says She Was Racially Profiled for Wearing a Headscarf While Traveling From Turkey

Lohan. Photo: Chance Yeh/Getty Images

Amid speculation that Lindsay Lohan may be converting to Islam, the actress now says she was recently a victim of Islamophobia. While traveling from London to New York after meeting with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey to discuss the global refugee crisis, Lohan claims she was “racially profiled for the first time in my life” at Heathrow Airport for wearing a headscarf. She told Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain, “[British Airport Security] opened my passport and saw ‘Lindsay Lohan’ and started immediately apologizing, but then said ‘please take off your headscarf.’ And I did, it’s okay.” (She says she was wearing a headscarf “out of personal respect” for Turkish culture.)

However, the incident forced Lohan to consider how she benefited from her privilege as both a celebrity and non-Muslim: “What scared me in that moment [is] how would another woman who doesn’t feel comfortable taking off her headscarf feel? That was really interesting to me. I was kind of in shock. It was jarring.” As for her religion, Lohan said it wouldn’t be right to talk about converting until she’s finished studying the Koran, but that “it’s a consideration.”

Lindsay Lohan Racially Profiled for Wearing a Headscarf