Sikh trio fights to keep turban, beard at US Marine boot camp
Darpan News Desk IANS, 14 Oct, 2022 12:40 PM
New York, Oct 14 (IANS) Three Sikh recruits, working to join the US Marine Corps, fought for an emergency appeal in District of Columbia's federal court to get an immediate exemption to the Corps' boot camp rule of cutting their hair and shaving their beards.
The three plaintiffs -- Aekash Singh, Milaap Singh Chahal and Jaskirat Singh -- want to attend Marine Corps basic training without having to shave their beards or forgo their traditional turbans during boot camp.
A three-judge panel expressed skepticism that the Marine Corps had a good reason to deny religious exemptions to its grooming standards but questioned why the plaintiffs required emergency relief, the Marine Corps Times reported.
No decision on the motion was made by the judges.
The trio had appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in September after a lower-court judge denied their request for a preliminary injunction that would have allowed the men to enter boot camp with their articles of faith, the Marine Times reported.
In Sikh faith, men wear turban and they do not shave off their beards or cut hair.
The Marine Corps previously denied all these requests, due to which the trio for years have remained poolees -- an individual who has already signed up to become a Marine but has not yet left for the recruit training at boot camp.
"We continue to believe that the Marine Corps is doing a disservice to both our clients and itself in denying basic rights that are recognised by other branches of our military and under the US law," said Giselle Klapper, Sikh Coalition Senior Staff Attorney.
In April 2022, the Sikh Coalition -- a New York-based advocacy group, Winston & Strawn, the Becket Fund and BakerHostetler, with support from the Sikh American Veterans Alliance had filed suit against the US Department of Defence on behalf of the trio.
"Time and again, Sikhs in the US Army and Air Force -- along with military forces around the world -- have proven that their articles of faith pose no barrier whatsoever to capable military service," said Amandeep S. Sidhu, partner at Winston & Strawn LLP.
"Prohibiting Sikhs from joining the Marine Corps is out of step with the rest of our military, as well as the most basic values that our country holds dear," Sidhu added.
The government of Udmurtia said 17 people, including 11 children, were killed in the shooting. According to Russia's Investigative Committee, 24 other people, including 22 children, were wounded in the attack.
Montana Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, wants the Department of Homeland Security to lift the vaccine requirement for truck drivers and other travellers. In a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Tester says vaccine mandates at the border are making cross-border trade harder and more expensive.
Anger erupted after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman from the north-western city of Saqez, died at a hospital in Tehran last Friday following three days in a coma. She was visiting the capital with her family on September 13 when she was arrested by morality police officers, who accused her of violating the law requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab and their arms and legs with loose clothing.
It's a high bar to clear for the King, who in both his private and public life, has raised eyebrows for conduct that his critics see as unbecoming of a royal. But this generational divide could be prove both an asset and a liability, experts say, positioning the King to make changes befitting of a modern monarch, while maintaining the continuity of dynastic power.
In the last 24 hours, 15 new fatalities were reported, all in the worst-hit Sindh province, reports Xinhua news agency citing the NDMA as saying. The victims included a child and three women. 12,716 km of roads and 374 bridges were damaged.
His father, Nazir Khan, reportedly poured kerosene over Shaheer and lit a match in an attempt to terrify the boy into completing his homework, but the flame ignited the oil and set the child ablaze, the report said.
