A 73-year-old man is claiming gender discrimination after being kicked out of his local Barnes & Noble bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona. Omar Amin was looking for books for his grandchildren when he was told to leave the store because he was in the children's section of the bookstore alone. 

The manager at the store said that he'd received a complaint from a female shopper and according to Amin told him that, "Men cannot be by themselves in the children's area." He was also told that other stores in the area had experienced problems with child molesters.

A Barnes & Noble spokesperson told The Arizona Republic in an email, "We have no comment on the store matter you called about. We believe we acted appropriately."

Amin is accusing the store of discrimination based on his gender. He told the newspaper that if women are able to shop alone in any section of the store than "then we arguably have gender discrimination."

After Amin was forced out of the store, he came back to confront the manager about what had happened and to speak with the woman that had made the complaint but he was denied the request.

Later, he wrote an e-mail to Barnes and Noble where he said, "I did not break any rules, there was no sign posted that said men are not allowed in the children's book area."

The company sent him an e-mail saying they would contact him after further investigating the situation and then issued a statement that read in part "We should not have done so. It is not our policy to ask customers to leave any section of our stores without justification. We value Dr. Amin as a customer and look forward to welcoming him in any of our stores." 

But Amin wants a public apology from the manager who as he put it, "escorted me out as a potential sex offender."