An Apple Store employee refused to sell an iPad to an Iranian-American teenager in Georgia.
After overhearing customer Sahar Sabet speaking Farsi, an Apple salesperson, who is also of Iranian descent, refused to sell her the product citing “bad relations” between the United States and Iran, report The Daily Mail.
After the shocking denial, Sabet returned to the store with a television crew hoping the Apple staffer would change his mind. She was turned down again with the employee pointing to the Apple policy which prohibits sales that will be exported to North Korea, Iran or any other country the United States does not trade with.
After the incident an outraged Sabet said, “It’s discrimination, racial profiling. He doesn’t have any business asking which country I was from.”
This is not the first instance of Apple denying Iranian customers. Another American citizen with Iranian heritage tried to purchase an iPhone from an Atlanta Apple store and suffered the same fate as Sabet, according to WSBTV. This man was accompanied by a friend travelling on a student visa from Iran. According to the man, no employee asked if the phone would end up in Iran, only what country the two men come from.