Did Apple Store employees in Alpharetta, Ga., refuse to sell an iPhone and an iPad to Farsi-speaking customers because they said they would be sending at least one of the devices to a friend in Iran?

That's what Sarah Sabet, a U.S. citizen of Iranian heritage, told WSB-TV, calling the experience "discrimination" and "very hurtful."

Sabet, a 19-year old student at the University of Georgia, was reportedly at an Apple Store in a local mall with a friend to buy a pair of new iDevices.

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.

"When we said 'Farsi, I'm from Iran,' he said, 'I just can't sell this to you. Our countries have bad relations,'" Sabet told WSB-TV.

The station sent a reporter to talk to a manager at the Apple Store, who said the store didn't make the sale because of strict limitations on U.S.-Iranian trade relations. According to Apple's export policy, the "exportation, reexportation, sale or supply" of Apple products "is strictly prohibited without prior authorization by the U.S. Government."

Sabet, though, didn't buy that explanation. In her opinion, she was racially profiled.

"He didn't have any business asking me what country I was from," Sabet said. "I actually walked out in tears."

After the emotional episode, Sabet called an Apple customer service agent, who was apologetic and told Sabet she could buy the equipment through Apple's website.

On Tuesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations called the Apple Store's treatment of Sabet and her friend discriminatory.

“Apple must revise its policies to ensure that customers do not face discriminatory treatment based on their religion, ethnicity or national origin,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. “If the actions of these Apple employees reflected company policy, that policy must be changed and all employees retrained.”

Mashable has contacted Apple for comment, but has not yet received a response.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, arakonyunus