For US airport security, saree seems to be the hardest word - Times of India

WASHINGTON/NEW DELHI: Security in the United States is never having to wear...a saree? India's ambassador to Washington, Meera Shankar , who brings sartorial grace and poise to the largely grey-suited diplomatic world with her elegantly draped sarees, found that hard-headed American airport security personnel are not as easily wowed as mandarins at the State Department and the White House . The Indian envoy was subjected to an enhanced security pat-down at the Jackson-Evers International Airport in Mississippi last weekend ostensibly because she was dressed in India's national female attire, which is also her stock-in-outfit.

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Shankar, who is nearing the end of her posting in WashingtonDC, was on her way back to Capital after an address to the Janos Radvanyi Chair in International Security Studies at Mississippi State University and other engagements in the state during her first visit there, including meetings with state government officials, when she ran into the security flap. According to accounts in the local media, Shankar was escorted to the airport by a host representative and an airport security officer. At the security screening, she was asked to step aside for a pat-down although she had presented her diplomatic credentials, and despite having not set off any alarms when she passed through the metal detector. The ostensible reason for the secondary screening was her saree'd attire.

For US airport security, saree seems to be the hardest word - Times of India