Kirpan Issue At Uni

[proud_to_be_singhni]

To All Sangat,

im in yr 2 now, and there was no problem with my kirpan last year, think no one noticed it, but as soon as i went for my first lesson today the module lecturer asked me to talk with him outside and said this.....some members in the class have expressed "concern" over my kirpan and (my kirpans bout 6/7 inch). Went to the dean with him who was polite but said its a knife and is illegal?!!! , i smiled and said sir its a kirpan, a symbol of my faith and i cant remove it ever to which he said, hmmm...i have no knowledge of sikhs! and will talk to the health and safety at the uni.

Now what i wana ask is if things dont go well what shud i do? Who can help me fight for the right to wear my kirpan at uni. I go to thames valley uni btw which is like soo near southall (little india) and you'd think they wud know evrything bout sikhi!! Any suggestions and support will be appreciated people, im a little worried :doh: .

fateh jee. worried kaur 2day.

[proud_to_be_singhni]

12 readers and still no reply, hehee, omg im reali worried now

*il give you people thinking time, need to be doing work now, laters

[Heera Singh]

isn't there a Sikh Coalition in the UK... and have u tried educating them on ur own?.. i mean there's only so much u can do.. but try to educate them a lil... and see if u can get in touch with the coalition...

hope for the best...

[SSM]

I'm close to u, we'll do a protest together if u want :TH: I'm totaly shocked

OK I don't think there's any way they can stop u once they done their research as I wore it to my school lol and that too with permission in London so just let them do their research and if it doesn't work then we'll think of plan B or maybe u can wear it under ur clothes?

Is it obviously visible?

hmmm good luck bhenji but have u got a sikh soc there or any other sikhs who are amritdhari there?

maybe wait for what the sangat got to say :TH:

Waheguru ji ka khalsa waheguru ji ki fateh

[Singh132]

Bhain jee,

A good link is http://www.sikhcoalition.org/InfoKirpan.asp.

I don't know how things are in UK but in Canada, whenever I've had a problem with my kirpan, I first express that it is a religious article of faith and it had been legally recognised as a right for Sikhs to wear it.

If they ask 'can we see it' the line I use is "Just like a police officer will not remove his gun from his holster, I also am obligated to not remove my kirpan".

In Canada, if the problem persists and the person seems unsure, I come out and say, "the best thing to do here is to call the police. They'll tell you what I'm telling you and it'll be more reassuring for you." But I say that based on the knoweldge that the local police forces here know about the kirpan and our right to wear it.

If you have a meeting with the dean again, or others involved it would be useful to show them an excerpt from the San Jose Police video about Sikhs when it mentions the kirpan (it's on www.khalsa.tv).

You can also refer them to the link I gave above which has cases about the kirpan on the left hand panel.

Overall I think you won't have any big problems. I wear my kirpan over my clothes and with bana to school so most people can understand it's just part of the uniform. Also it clears away any allegation of "concealed weapon".

To close on a personal note though, lately I have had some troubles with my kirpan and was a bit nervous about wearing it like I normally do (I wear one that's a little over 1ft), but then I thought to myself, is my cleverness going to save me from trouble? If I hide my kirpan, will that protect me? In the end it's Guru Sahib who's going to be looking after me and it's up to him to take care of things like this. After all, even people with tiny 4" kirpans under their clothes have been hassled. So with this, I'm feeling a lot more confident.

[desilad]

Khalsa Ji

What about BOSS = British organisation of Sikh Students.

have a look at the following link: http://www.boss-uk.org/

Vaheguru Ji ka Khalsa

Vaheguru Ji ki Fateh.

[proud_to_be_singhni]

thankyou evryone for ur advice, il try sum of the ideas ( a little de-stressed now)

singh138 its so great u can wear ur full bana, wish i could.

ssm penji, yeah it is under clothes but half was not coz not to do beadbi to the kirpan. i am pres. of the sikh soc and have not seen ne amritdharis there, not many proper singhs too, me only singhnee, im strange for many poeple, especially the japanese, chinese students who always seem to want their pic taken with me to send home for their parents to see ..... hmmm.

il keep sangat updated on further developments, hoping i wont get more problems tomorrow

thanx again

[Sewadar]

We have one important document that several organization used it for kirpan cases. It might be help if you can send that to Dean or Student representative. Let us know if need it

[proud_to_be_singhni]

yes admin sangat please, please........* 100, thanx

[Barik]

I had recieved email one time, it was basically a court order where it was advised that Kirpan is a religious symbol and should not be called as a weapon. I will try to find something because here in USA, had many kirpan cases and was solved. May be you can refer to it to the dean of students and then it can sort our the problem forever, so by this other Amritdhari students will not have problems either.