IPFS News Link • Racism
iRacism: Apple refuses to sell products to US Persians
• http://rt.comAn American teen was unable to shop at an Apple store simply because she was speaking Farsi with her uncle. What seems to be a clear-cut case of ethnic profiling turns out to be in line with official company policy.
Sabah Sabet, a 19-year old US citizen of Iranian extraction, and a student of the University of Georgia, took her uncle to buy an iPhone and an iPad at an Apple store in a mall in Alpharetta, Georgia, local news channel WSBTV reports.
But she was in for a shocker, as the store clerk refused to sell them the devices after he found out Sabet and her uncle were speaking Farsi.
“When we said ‘Farsi, I'm from Iran,’ he said, ‘I just can't sell this to you. Our countries have bad relations,’” Sabet recounted.
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3 Comments in Response to iRacism: Apple refuses to sell products to US Persians
"After Apple Store employees overheard Sabet and her friend speaking to one another in Farsi, they asked them what language they were speaking, where they were from and where the devices were headed. When Sabet said the devices were a gift for a friend in Iran, the Apple Store denied the sale."
http://mashable.com/2012/06/21/apple-store-iran/
This was a matter of poor judgement and bad company policy. Like I said earlier the job of enforcing customs laws is for U.S. Customs and not Apple and their policy of not selling to people who would export . The denial of the sale of the iPad was wrong and my conclusion was incorrect since I was lead to believe that Apple as a company would not allow the sale of products in Iran. I did not realize that it included sales on store level. I apologize for any misunderstanding.
Reading more about this story it is looking like that the person in question may have asked the Apple rep how she could ship the iPad to Iran. That's when the rep told her she could not.
She has the right to buy for herself but if she wants to send a gift, that’s a job for US Customs, not the Apple Store.
Iran threatens human rights, democracy and free speech. I applaud Apple for not sanctioning this regime by withholding their products being sold there. It is not racism to stand up to or refuse to associate with an iron-fisted dictatorship. If you think you know what is happening with or in Iran please watch this presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/HonestReporting/why-you-should-care-about-iran