Intelligence of potential terror attack triggered Emirates ban on Tunisian women, state news agency reports

United Arab Emirates yet to explain reasoning for not allowing female Tunisians to board flights since Friday

Anger is building among female passengers (Reuters/Zoubeir Souissi)

The United Arab Emirates has information that Tunisian women or women travelling on Tunisian passports might commit “terrorist acts” in the Gulf country, Tunisia’s state news agency TAP said.

Tunisia late on Sunday suspended flights from Dubai carrier Emirates to Tunis, with officials saying the airline was refusing to carry female Tunisian travellers.

Emirates has given no reason for not allowing female Tunisians to board its flights since Friday.

A spokesman for Tunisia’s presidency did not elaborate on the security threat in a brief TAP article.

Emirates had stopped its Dubai-Tunis connection on Monday.

In Tunisia, anger has been building after women said they had been banned at Tunis airport from boarding Emirates flights to Dubai.

Tunisian civil organisations and political parties called on the government to respond. Foreign Minister Khemais Jhianoui told a local radio station the UAE should apologise for the travel ban, which he said its authorities had not informed Tunisia about.

Reuters