An Iranian PhD candidate said he was thrown off a Greyhound bus in the middle of the night, and he suspects it is because his name is Mohammad.
Mohammad Reza Sardari, who is enrolled in the University of Texas urban planning and public policy planning programme, said he was travelling from Arlington, Texas, to Kansas City, Missouri, for an academic conference when his bus abruptly stopped around 3am.
The driver demanded to see his ticket, Mr Sardari said, and initially rejected a version on his phone. After he produced a printout, he said, the driver continued to say he would need to exit the bus.
In a video Mr Sardari posted to his Facebook page last week, a woman can be heard saying “you’re not going with me”.
“I don’t want to talk to you no more. You get off my bus”, the woman says, adding that police officers are en route.
Ultimately, Mr Sardari said, he had to pay for a car to take him to his destination. He told NBC News that he had to pay nearly $250 to travel the remaining 200 miles.
“I have to mention that I am a no drama guy and I stayed calm and courteous throughout the ordeal,” he wrote on Facebook.
A spokeswoman for Greyhound said in an email that the company had opened an investigation.
“Greyhound does not tolerate discrimination of any kind and is taking these allegations very seriously,” said spokeswoman Lanesha Gipson.
