Lindsay Lohan, who was in New York recently to support her brother Dakota’s runway debut at Fashion Week, says she was racially profiled at London’s Heathrow Airport on her way over.
“I was wearing [a] headscarf and I got stopped at the airport and racially profiled for the first time in my life,” the actress and activist for Syrian refugees said Tuesday on the UK show “Good Morning Britain.” After she was then “double checked” by a female airport agent, Lohan said, “she opened my passport and saw ‘Lindsay Lohan’ and started immediately apologizing, but then said, ‘Please — but take off your headscarf.’ And I did. I mean, it’s OK. But what scared me was [in] that moment, how would another woman who doesn’t feel comfortable taking off her headscarf feel? That was really interesting. I mean, I was kind of in shock.”
The “Mean Girls” star, 30, said she did not know if she were being scrutinized as Arab or Muslim. She told hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid that “I can’t speak for what the purpose of it was,” adding, “I was a little intimidated.”
According a UK government website, “If you’re wearing headgear for religious or cultural reasons, you can ask for it to be checked using a hand-held scanner so you don’t have to remove it.”
Lohan was wearing the scarf for two reasons, she said. “I was leaving Turkey,” where since last summer she has visited Syrian refugee camps in Istanbul and Gaziantep, “and out of respect for certain countries that I go to . . . I feel more comfortable acting the same as the other women. That’s just a personal respect issue for me.” But, she added, “When we look back at Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn, these old Hollywood actresses, they used to cover up the same way, with their big glasses and their headscarf . . . because maybe you don’t want to be seen as much in the airport. My red hair doesn’t exactly not stand out.”
Lohan also expanded on comments she made earlier this month suggesting that Americans should accept Donald Trump’s presidency. “It’s such a double-edged sword, the situation, because I don’t agree with his policies and the things that he’s doing, but at the end of the day he is the president right now.” She allowed, however, that, “I do think his Twitter needs to be taken away or deleted.”
