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Ten Sikh Women You Should Know

Friday, March 23rd, 2012 | Leave a comment

Published on Huffington Post

If you ask Sikhs about their religion, the first thing you will hear is belief in the Oneness of God.

The second is that Sikh men wear turbans to cover their long hair, an article of faith which tragically became a target after 9/11 (See, I just did it).

But if you linger a minute longer, you will hear us beam about the equality of women in our faith. Unlike in most other religions, our scriptures are explicit about women as equal in the eyes of God.

What if you asked for names of famous Sikh women?

You will hear a short pause. Then, a slight effort in concentration, before: Ah ha! There’s Mata Tripta, the mother of the first Guru! And Mata Nanaki, the sister of the first Guru! And Mata Khivi, wasn’t she the second Guru’s wife? You will hear an earful of mothers, sisters and wives of the Ten Gurus, or Teachers of the Sikh faith in the 15th and 16th centuries. As the list ends there, you may begin to sense there is something amiss.

It’s time to confront the gap between our ideals and how we live them.

Sikh-Americans like me talk a great deal about women’s equality, but we are steeped in an old patriarchal culture that makes us complicit in the erasure of women, past and present. Even the few famous women in our history are defined in relation to their men. Their full contributions as thinkers, poets and warriors unto themselves are eclipsed by the men they supported.

The real life consequence? Sikh girls today are told they’re fully equal, and yet many are expected to carry out traditional gender roles – with few role models to suggest otherwise.

We would never tell you this, of course. You can’t blame us. There are so few of us, it’s hard to air our community’s problems – especially after 9/11, when explaining that “Sikhism” is a religion in the first place became a matter of daily survival.

In fact, as a third-generation Sikh-American activist, it took me nearly a decade after 9/11 even to begin talking about women again. After the terrorist attacks, we women tacitly agreed to put our issues on hold. We needed to protect our men first – our fathers and brothers and husbands and sons whose turbans and tanned skin marked them as primary targets for hate in the years after 9/11.

This was a mistake. As we waited (and are still waiting) for the discrimination to pass over us, some of the cultural dysfunctions in our community worsened.

Women are girls are always the first casualties within minority communities under siege.

That is no different in ours.

Just as in most patriarchal traditions around the world, the bodies of women have been considered vessels of honor in Punjabi culture. When riots and massacres swept Punjab during the 1947 Partition of Punjab and the subcontinent, some Sikh men poisoned their daughters before letting them fall into the hands of Muslim attackers – there had been widespread reports of mutilation and sexual brutalization of women.

Today in America, while many Sikh families champion education and freedom for sons and daughters alike, others have tightened control over women and girls in the 9/11 decade. In the worst anecdotes, domestic violence is an outlet for men who bear racism on the street, intermarriage an act of betrayal, and honor killings an actual threat.

But there’s another story too.

The call for liberation pulses through the Sikh tradition: it’s in our scriptures and songs and stories. Hearing the call, a new generation of Sikh women has emerged as lawyers, artists, entrepreneurs, doctors, filmmakers and more. They have found brave new ways to defend their communities while offering their own unique voices to public discourse.

I am proud to call them my contemporaries – they are sources of inspiration, wisdom and leadership in their communities who deserve to be known.

Here are 10 Sikh women who embody the highest Sikh ideal of the warrior-saint. Half are legends from early history – women who we will never fully know but whose deeds ignite our imagination as the first female warrior-saints. Half are modern-day heroines – each one stands for hundreds of Sikh women who are blazing their own paths as the warrior-saints of our era.

My hope is that the next time you ask a Sikh on the street about his or her religion, he/she will be able to name all these women. And you will already know their names.

See the slideshow on Huffington Post here.

I   THE FIRST SIKH: NANAKI  (1464 – 1518)

Born in Chahal village (Lahore, Punjab – now in Pakistan), Mata Nanaki loved and nurtured her younger brother Nanak. In 1469, Nanak experienced a divine vision as a young man and became the first Guru or “teacher” of what is now the Sikh faith. Nanaki was the first to follow him and is celebrated as the First Sikh, which literally means “disciple” or “seeker of truth.”

II   THE FIRST TO SERVE LANGAR: KHIVI  (1506 – 82)

Mata Khivi followed Guru Nanak and prepared food for all who came to hear the Guru’s spiritual discourse. When her husband Angad became the second Sikh Guru, she presided over langar, a free and open kitchen, serving food to rich and poor of all castes, faiths  and backgrounds. Today, every Sikh gurdwara in the world serves langar to the community and is open to all. Sikh and non-Sikh alike.

III   THE WARRIOR-SAINT: BHAGO  (late 1600s – early 1700s)

Born in Jhabal village (now Amritsar, Punjab), Ma-ee Bhago grew up in a time when the 10th Guru, Gobind Singh, fought to defend Sikhs against the tyranny of the Mughal regime and regional Hindu hill chiefs. During a great siege in 1705, Bhago rallied 40 deserters and led them into battle herself, sword in hand. They died fighting and became known as the Chaali Muktey – the Forty Liberated Ones. Later, Bhago became the Guru’s bodyguard, donning a turban and dressing in warrior attire. Today, she is revered as a warrior-saint.

IV   COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF: SADA KAUR  (1762 – 1832)

Rani Sada Kaur became a young widow when her husband was killed in a battle. She used the moment to transform herself into a warrior, donning a turban, armor and weaponry. She commanded battles and laid the foundation for the Sikh empire, which spanned the Punjab from 1799 to 1849. She closely advised her son-in-law as guided him as he became the first Emperor of the new Sikh empire – Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

V   FREEDOM FIGHTER: MAHARANI JIND KAUR  (1817 – 63)

Married to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Jind Kaur was the first female freedom fighter in the struggle to oust the British from the subcontinent. After Ranjit Singh’s death, the British annexed the Punjab through bribery and treachery. Jind Kaur’s revolutionary speeches and rallying cries rattled the British who imprisoned her. She escaped – a dramatic saga in itself – and lived in exile in Nepal. Later, when finally allowed to see her son, the exiled Maharaja Duleep Singh who had been taken away when still a child, she died shortly thereafter in England in 1863 at the age of 46. She is credited for sowing the seeds of the subcontinent’s struggle for independence.

VI   THE GREAT POET: AMRITA PRITAM  (1919 – 2005)

She was the leading poet of the subcontinent in the 20th century. She is the first prominent woman Punjabi poet, novelist, and essayist, equally loved on both sides of the India-Pakistan border. With a career spanning six decades, Amrita Pritam produced more than 100 books. She represents the rise of Sikh women in the humanities – writers, artists, filmmakers and scholars.

VII   THE GREAT SOCIAL WORKER: DR INDERJIT KAUR  (1942 – )

A doctor by training, Inderjit Kaur is the President of the Pingalwara Charitable Society in Amritsar, Punjab – a famous refuge for the poor, handicapped, diseased, and mentally ill. Since 1992, she has carried the legacy of its founder, Bhagat Puran Singh, with her own bold leadership. She stands in for countless Sikh women – doctors, nurses, health-care advocates, volunteers — who selflessly care for the sick and poor.

VIII   UNIVERSAL MOTHER: PRAKASH KAUR  (1951 – )

In a country (India) notorious for female infanticide, Prakash Kaur runs a house in Jalandhar, Punjab for 60 abandoned girls. She was abandoned herself as a child- found a few hours old in a drain. Since 1993, she has rescued and raised unwanted and unclaimed newborn girls. She represents the many Sikh women fighting for women and girls against abandonment, domestic violence, sexual assault and forced marriage.

IX   CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYER:  AMRIT SINGH  (1969 – )

A formidable civil rights lawyer, Amrit Singh was one of the fiercest U.S. critics of the torture and abuse of prisoners under the Bush Administration. As an ACLU attorney, she litigated cases on torture, indefinite detention and post-9/11 discrimination. She now serves at the Open Society Justice Initiative. Her father is the 13th and current Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh. Amrit Singh represents a new generation of Sikh women lawyers, wielding the law as sword and shield in the civic battlefield.

X   THE SENATOR: DR ANARKALI KAUR HONARYAR  (1984 -)

Anarkali Kaur is a human rights advocate and Senator in Afghanistan. As one of a dwindling population of several thousand Sikhs remaining in war-torn Afghanistan, she fights for the civil rights of minorities and women. When the Taliban was overthrown in 2001, she joined the Grand Council, Loya Jirga, to elect the interim government, and then helped draft the country’s new constitution. She serves as the first non-Muslim woman member in the Lower House of Parliament. In 2009, at 25 years old, she was voted “Person of the Year” by Radio Free Europe’s Afghan chapter, becoming a household name in Kabul. A modern-day “Ma-ee Bhago,” Arnakali Kaur represents the rise of fearless modern-day Sikh warriors.

Ending Police Abuse: FBI Arrests Officers for Tyrannizing Latinos

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 | Leave a comment

In law school, alongside dedicated classmates, I fought a case taking on a corrupt police department in East Haven, CT. It began one cold February night in the basement of a church, where Latino families gathered to tell stories of abuse and racial profiling at the hands of police officers. People were scared to come forward, but faith and community leaders in that local Catholic church urged them to tell their stories in the light of day.

For the next several years, we waged a robust campaign.  The case has just reached a dramatic conclusion, or at least the end of one chapter. A few days ago, the Department of Justice released a scathing indictment against the police department and the FBI arrested four officers. And yesterday, the Police Chief at the center of so much of the abuse has resigned.

NYT: Police Gang Tyrannized Latinos, Indictment Says
CNN: FBI arrests Connecticut cops accused of racial profiling
NPR: 4 Conn. Officers Arrested Over Treatment Of Latinos
NYT: East Haven Police Chief Retiring After Charges for Officers

I’m amazed that a small group of faith leaders, courageous community members, and dedicated students could so effectively bring national attention to an injustice and call upon institutions of power to take action. It makes me understand the power of storytelling in a new way — filmmakers learn to bring stories to the general public; lawyers and organizers make stories of injustice legible inside institutions of power. Both forms of storytelling are necessary to change hearts and minds, not only of decision-makers but of a public who hold them accountable.

In our case, we waged a multi-pronged strategy that took movement-building just as seriously as traditional lawyering. The result: storytelling + advocacy = social change.

I share as a model of what a groundswell could look like in one Connecticut town.

An Open Letter to Steve Hafner, CEO of Kayak

Friday, December 16th, 2011 | 1 Comment

Dear Mr. Hafner:

…
Let me first say that Kayak.com is bookmarked on my computer.  I think it’s the best travel site out there.  I’ve used Kayak for every single flight I have ever booked since 2005.  And I travel a lot — at least 50,000 miles a year.  You provide a tool I use all the time.

So when I read your blog post yesterday, defending your company’s decision not to renew advertising of “All-American Muslim” on TLC, I was furious.  I was troubled when anti-Muslim groups like the Florida Family Association (FFA) began to target the show for depicting Muslim Americans as regular people.  But I didn’t think it would actually work!  First Lowe’s withdraws support.  Now Kayak, one of my favorite companies?!

Now I know that you handled the matter differently from Lowe’s, who openly acknowledged that it gave into pressure.  Instead, you stated that your decision, which came three days after Lowe’s, “was in no way influenced by demands from third parties such as the FFA.”  You explain: “We do try to avoid advertising on shows that may produce controversy… We simply don’t want people to confuse our choice of where we spend our TV dollars with a political or moral agenda.”

So, not only did your company cave into bigoted demands, but you covered it up with spin.  The deception makes your decision even more morally outrageous.

Mr. Hafner, you say that you want to avoid a “political or moral agenda,” but in fact, your decision makes a strong political and moral statement.  We hear it loud and clear:

It shows that you find a portrait of everyday Muslim American families “controversial.”

It implies that any media that shows Muslims as ordinary people, not terrorists, has a “political or moral agenda.”

Worse, it tells fringe hate groups that mainstream companies will cave into bigoted demands, even if they don’t admit it publicly.

Please understand that your company’s decision has real-life consequences.  You are not just a travel site company, as you try to explain in your blog post.  You’re a player in the world at large.  Your decisions spill over into our social, political, and ethical landscape, and people like me bear the costs and benefits.

I am a Sikh American woman who has watched her community targeted in beatings, bullying, profiling, and killings since 9/11.  The stereotype of the “Muslim terrorist” still dominates the media and seizes our nation’s imagination.  It makes some see my family and community — people with brown skin or turbans– as automatically suspect, perpetually foreign, and potentially terrorist.  I am not even Muslim, but I bear the brunt of that bigotry and I want it to end.

And I am not alone.  There is a groundswell of people out there who are tired of the politics of fear.  People of faith are tired of their religion being used as a tool of oppression.  What’s more, a new generation of young people — the largest, most diverse and open-minded in the nation’s history — can’t stomach hate groups.  Most of us don’t like decisions that give into their bigotry, no matter how you cover it up.  And a whole lot of us use Kayak.com.

Mr. Hafner, you say: “We’re not bigots.”  I don’t think you are. You just committed a moral failure that allows bigotry to win the day.  In the end, I’m not sure there’s much of a difference.  But you have a short window of opportunity to prove me wrong:

1. Issue a public apology immediately.
2. Renew your support of “All-American Muslim.”
3. Devote a portion of your profits to combating religious and racial bigotry.

I offer you a meeting with myself and/or my peers to talk about the right thing to do. Until then, I am boycotting your Web site.  I will call upon all people who care about religious diversity in America to do the same.

Sincerely,

Valarie Kaur
Former Loyal Kayak Customer
Director of Groundswell
www.groundswell-movement.org

PS.  I have sent your office a copy of my film Divided We Fall, a documentary that chronicles anti-Muslim hate violence after 9/11 through real stories.  It shows just why television shows like “All-American Muslim” are so important.

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Sign the petition to tell American companies to stand up to extremism here.  Leave a message for Steve Hafner here:

Steve Hafner, CEO of Kayak
55 North Water Street, Suite 1
Norwalk, CT 06854 USA
Tel +1 203 899-3100

Calling on American Companies to Stand Up to Bigotry

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011 | Leave a comment

All-American Muslim is TLC’s bold new reality TV show that follows Muslim American families in Dearborn, MI. It has all the features of reality television – funny, dramatic, sensational, addictive – but it also tackles real-world struggles: family and marriage, racism, religious conflict, and how life changed after 9/11. It made me excited – the first truly mainstream portrait of Muslims in America.

Last week, fringe anti-Muslim groups pressured American companies to pull their advertising dollars from the show – and it worked! Lowe’s Home Improvement caved in.

But that wasn’t the end of the story. Almost overnight, more than 20,000 people expressed moral outrage at what Lowe’s had done and signed a petition to encourage companies to do the right thing and stand up to religious extremism.

As a storyteller, filmmaker, and person of faith, I’m writing to ask you to join the groundswell, to join these 20,000 and stand up strong for religious freedom:

Click here to sign the petition. (Once you sign, we’ll add our names to the 20,000 others who have spoken out already.)

I was honored to have the opportunity to go on The Rachel Maddow Show on Monday night to share my passion and speak to the urgency of the moment:

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On the show, I reflected on how we have lived in the shadow of 9/11 for a decade, witnessing resurgences of anti-Muslim bias. But in this moment – a time of economic instability and in an election season – some have tried to use anti-Muslim rhetoric as a political tool to score points or make a profit. 

They have repeated the refrain: “Where is the mainstream Muslim community?” Here they are! On reality TV. Complex, messy, diverse, fascinating, and even lovable. But the moment they engage mainstream audiences, they are viciously attacked.

There is good news: we have entered a new decade. People of faith are tired of their religion being used as a tool of oppression. And a new generation is on the scene – the largest, most diverse and open-minded generation the country has seen. What gives me hope is that there is a groundswell of people out there – you and me – who are hungry to see an end to the politics of fear.

As a Sikh American storyteller, I believe that stories can dissolve fear: stories can save us, break us open, and make us human to each other. All-American Muslim is the quintessential form of modern American storytelling – a reality TV show! No single show can represent an entire community, but as someone who has fought the tide of post-911 racism with my film Divided We Fall, this television show gives me hope. The show signals a new era, a new time, where Muslims, Sikhs, and all underrepresented people can enter mainstream media and tell their stories in their own voice. We just need to stand up for them.

In this holiday season, a time of coming together and binding ties of compassion, please take a moment to sign the petition, share with your friends, and tune in to the show this month – Sundays at 10/9c on TLC.