‘Hijab Was Removed Without Her Consent’: Congresswoman Tells Mehdi About Visit With Detained Student

It’s been over a month since shocking footage emerged of masked ICE agents arresting Tufts Doctoral Student Rümeysa Öztürk, after her visa was terminated simply for co-authoring an op-ed in the student newspaper calling for the university to divest in Israel.

Since then, Rümeysa has been confined to an ICE detention center in Louisiana, where her US Representative, Ayanna Pressley, met with her late last month.

In this powerful interview for ‘Mehdi Unfiltered,’ Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley tells Mehdi about the “harrowing” conditions Rümeysa has been facing in her detention center – which Pressley says, “has a long documented history of human rights violations and abuses.”

“She suffered several very severe asthma attacks while there, received inadequate medical care. There has been no religious accommodation, in fact, not only on a dietary aspect, but when it comes to a space to pray, a Quran. Her hijab was removed without her consent by one of the nurses,” Pressley tells Mehdi.

Pressley emphasizes to Mehdi how the Trump administration has completely ignored due process, and explains just how dire the implications of Rümeysa’s case are for the country.

“This is laying the ground foundationally and will be a threat to everyone. This means that this could be you tomorrow for suffering a miscarriage, because in Trump's America, that's been criminalized. This means this could be you tomorrow for reading a banned book,” Pressley says. “With this dictator in chief, simply because you have a dissenting opinion from his worldview, you could find yourself incarcerated.”

During the second half of the interview, Mehdi asks Pressley about President Donald Trump’s first 100 days of his second term, as well as the state of the Democratic party.

“I do not believe, Mehdi, that this is about weathering the next four years. I believe this will dictate the next 100,” Pressley says to Mehdi.

Paid subscribers can watch the full 26 minutes of this engaging interview with Pressley, to hear her discuss Trump and Republicans’ plans to potentially cut Medicaid, reporting that Democrats were told to stand down on visiting wrongly deported legal resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and Congresswoman AOC’s decision to pass on seeking a leadership position in the House.

Free subscribers can watch the first 5 minutes of the interview. This is a conversation you won’t want to miss, with Pressley completely unbarred in her answers. Consider upgrading to a paid membership to watch it in full.

Congresswoman Pressley recently joined Substack. You can find her at https://substack.com/@reppressley.