Reddit User Can't Understand Why Sikh Woman Would Have Body Hair; Sikh Caucus Asks Department Of Justice To Include Anti-Sikh Hate Crime

On Reddit, a user posted a photo of a Sikh woman with dark, untrimmed facial hair with the caption "i'm not sure what to conclude from this." In Sikh tradition, adherents do not cut their hair - any of it. And women have body hair. This, apparently, was too much for Reddit user "european douchebag" to comprehend. Then the complete stranger in the photo actually responded on Reddit.

"Hey, guys. This is Balpreet Kaur, the girl from the picture", she wrote.

"Yes, I'm a baptized Sikh woman with facial hair.....Just as a child doesn't reject the gift of his/her parents, Sikhs do not reject the body that has been given to us..."

Balpreet then eloquently explained why she didn't feel the need to conform to Western standards of beauty.

"By transcending societal views of beauty, I believe that I can focus more on my actions. My attitude and thoughts and actions have more value in them than my body because I recognize that this body is just going to become ash in the end, so why fuss about it"

Then, amazingly, the original poster apologized.

"I felt the need to apologize to the Sikhs, Balpreet, and anyone else I offended when I posted that picture. Put simply it was stupid," he wrote.

He added, "/r/Funny wasn't the proper place to post this. Maybe /r/racism or /r/douchebagsofreddit or /r/intolerance would have been more appropriate.

"Reddit shouldn't be about putting people down, but a group of people sending cool, interesting, or funny things.

"I've read more about the Sikh faith and it was actually really interesting. It makes a whole lot of sense to work on having a legacy and not worrying about what you look like. I made that post for stupid internet points and I was ignorant."

Still, some people couldn't understand her choice. Even on feminist website Jezebel, which covered the story, a user posted "if she can clip her finger nails, wear glasses to correct her defective vision and brush, bathe and wash to get rid of natural body odors; is it really all that materialistic to get rid of a little facial hair to look more feminine? she is a beautiful woman and she should live to up her beauty along with faith."

Facepalm.

This attitude, and the attitudes of Reddit user "european douchebag", come as part of a long chain of bigotry and violence that that lawmakers are calling for changes in an effort to solve.

The Sikh Caucus has just asked the Department of Justice to include an anti-Sikh hate crime category.

"American Sikhs experience bigotry at all ages, from school-yard bullying to horrific violence. Despite this, an anti-Sikh category has not been added to Form 1-699. Including an anti-Sikh category is an important step in confronting violent hate crimes and increasing public awareness about these crimes," the bipartisan American Congressional Sikh Caucus said.

This marks the first official act of the Caucus. It was founded last month and is chaired by Congressman David G Valadao and Congresswoman Judy Chu.

An elderly Sikh man was beaten with a metal pipe in Fresno, California in early May. Last August, a shooting in a Gurwada, Wisconson Sikh temple killed six people.

"In the face of continued violence targeting American Sikhs across the country, we must act to ensure the safety and well-being of this community," Chu said.

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