{"id":4848,"date":"2007-11-07T20:25:49","date_gmt":"2007-11-08T01:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=4848"},"modified":"2007-11-11T13:13:09","modified_gmt":"2007-11-11T18:13:09","slug":"antikarato_ensu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2007\/11\/07\/antikarato_ensu\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-kara…to Ensure Equality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, color me furious after perusing ye olde News tab. Well, the new<\/em> News tab, but still. Via the Beeb<\/a> (Thanks, chicagodesidiva):\n\"Oh,<\/p>\n\n

A 14-year-old girl has been excluded from a school in south Wales for wearing a Sikh bangle, or Kara.<\/blockquote>\n\n
Sarika Singh refused to take off the religious symbol because it is “a constant reminder to do good”. <\/blockquote>\n\n

As you can see from the photograph, Sarika’s kara is hardly ostentatious or luxe– I mention that because that<\/em> was the rational which my<\/em> private school had for outlawing jewelry…so girls couldn’t flaunt wealth by dripping in gold, diamonds, filthy lucre.<\/p>\n\n

Aberdare Girls School said it has a clear code of conduct and it had temporarily excluded a pupil for refusing to accept a governors’ ruling.<\/blockquote>\n\n

The school also stated that a “code of conduct” had been distributed to every student before they commenced attending Aberdare AND that it was reissued before every semester. Said code only allows a watch and “plain metal stud earrings”. I guess that means crosses, pentagrams, and super-cute star-of-David pendants aren’t permitted. Then again, none of those necklaces are part of anything like the 5 Ks<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n

The Sikh Federation UK said that the bangle was an “article of faith” and Sikhs had no choice but to wear it.<\/blockquote>\n\n

Sarika’s parent, Sinita Singh, is not being unreasonable:<\/p>\n\n

She said the teenager would remove the bangle for gym classes, or wood and metalwork, for safety reasons.<\/strong> <\/blockquote>\n\n
Mrs Singh said: “It’s not jewellery, it’s part of our faith and symbol of our belief.”<\/blockquote>\n\n
She said they had a meeting with the school and argued the case with the board of governors, but they refused to allow her to wear it.<\/blockquote>\n\n
“We feel very strongly that Sarika has a right to manifest her religion – she’s not asking for anything big and flashy, she’s not making a big fuss, she just wants a reminder of her religion.”<\/blockquote>\n\n

Apparently, Sarika has been suspended<\/em> (hey, UK types…is that what “excluded” means?) for wanting to wear her kara.<\/p>\n\n

Sarika said of wearing the bangle: “It’s very important to me, it constantly reminds me to do good and not to do bad, especially with my hands.”<\/blockquote>\n\n
Her mother said the Sikh Federation had supported them and she would do “whatever it takes”.<\/blockquote>\n\n

Maybe the law is on Sarika’s side?<\/p>\n\n

Jagtar Singh, secretary of Sikh Federation UK claimed the school was breaching the 1976 Race Relations Act<\/a> in its treatment of Sarika.<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
“The department for education and schools in England have said that if a headteacher or governing body were to deny a Sikh child one of their articles of faith such as the bangle then they would be breaking the law,” he said. <\/blockquote>\n\n
“If you are a practising Sikh, you have no choice, you have to have the kara. It is the one symbol that virtually every single Sikh wears.”<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, color me furious after perusing ye olde News tab. Well, the new News tab, but still. Via the Beeb (Thanks, chicagodesidiva): A 14-year-old girl has been excluded from a school in south Wales for wearing a Sikh bangle, or … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4848"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}