Why Are Some Sikh Women Now Wearing The Turban?

[MisterrSingh]

how about they actually love their dharam and actually read the rules about attire and follow it despite familial prejudice or external hardship pild on them for their choices i.e they pukkey sikhs ? it really is not a fashion statement

Read what I posted before you get emotional. Not once did I allude to it being a fashion statement. I suggested they felt compelled to adhere to this aspect of their faith due to the growing intolerance and hostility from an increasingly prejudiced western society, in affect thumbing their nose at bigots who want religious people to assimilate and disregard all overt, external articles of faith under the pretence of societal harmony.

[jkvlondon]

Read what I posted before you get emotional. Not once did I allude to it being a fashion statement. I suggested they felt compelled to adhere to this aspect of their faith due to the growing intolerance and hostility from an increasingly prejudiced western society, in affect thumbing their nose at bigots who want religious people to assimilate and disregard all overt, external articles of faith under the pretence of societal harmony.

I didn't do it to push anything onto others and I am sure many do it for the same reason as me , we want to look like our Father and Mother and siblings

[jkvlondon]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03hwl0m

There r some very odd/dodgy questions asked here by nikki bedi, like "is it a myth/there proof that sikh women in history ever wore dastar?". Fitteh mooh

also Sikhi was founded in the 15th century they could even get that basic fact straight , tells you what you need to know, they do not care about accuracy

[Balkaar]

before even Bhai Randhir Singh ji said anything it was purataan rehit of akal takht the gorified folks removed the requirement in 1920s via Jathedar Gurmukh (sic) SIngh Musafir , he claimed it was to make it easier for our womenfolk to have amrit ??

Nobody is casting aspersions on the sincerity of these Bibiaans' faith. But there is no historical basis for your claim that the keski/dastaar was enjoined upon all Sikh women in the old days.The situation today is how it has always been - some women choose to wear a dastaar, but most don't. Do you have any sources corroborating your other claim about Gurmukh Singh Musafir?

None of the portrayals and accounts of the Sikhs before the 1920s represent Sikh women as mostly wearing turbans, the notable exceptions being female members of the Nihang order (and Mai Bhago, who was conspicuous by her manner of dress). The most common way in which bibiaan wore their kes was in a high top-knot towards the back of their heads, beneath a chunni.

These gorified folks you allude to are also precisely the people (Lahore Singh Sabha) whose movement helped give rise to groups like Bhai Randhir Singh's.

[MisterrSingh]

I didn't do it to push anything onto others and I am sure many do it for the same reason as me , we want to look like our Father and Mother and siblings

The human mind works on many levels. What may motivate you to follow Sikhi is different for the next person. As much as we should avoid being slaves to the whims of our times, it cannot be disputed that external and internal stimuli play a huge part in our decision-making, whether we're conscious of it or not.

[joker]

Some Sikh women have always worn the the turban,The hindu writer is trying to associate sikh turban wearing women with negative light = hijab fundamentalism = not assimilating= threat

[JagsawSingh]

We absolutely detest randhir ingh grewal and his jatha (and remember the Randhir Singh Jatha only changed their name to AKJ quite recently, in the 1970's', as it started to resemble a personal dera of cult followship) and yet of course my wife wears a dastar. Our reasoning is simple: How on earth can a 'Sikh' be a 'Sikh' without a dastar ? It is basic common sense. It is absolutely ludicrous and damnright fakery for an amritdhari sikh woman to claim to be amritdhari and yet not have a dastar on her head. To accept her as amritdhari with a chunni on her head rather than a dastar is the same as saying I merely need to wear a thin piece of cloth across my head rather than a dastar.

As we have progressed.....we Sikhs born in the west especially, have been born free from the sexist and mysoginist culture that prevails in Punjab and also free from the reliance of reading books and gaining knowledge that was, in the past, the exclusive preserve of an elite group of urban community groups who essentially wrote Sikh history in a way that satisfies their community's view of things. That is no longer the case. I think when someone is born in an environment away from these influences one see true Sikhi and when one sees true Sikhi one can see that it would be making an absolute mockery of everything our religion stands for if we said a simple and pathetic piece of very thin cloth (chunni) is all a Sikh woman needs.

[FriendlyStranger]

Nobody is casting aspersions on the sincerity of these Bibiaans' faith. But there is no historical basis for your claim that the keski/dastaar was enjoined upon all Sikh women in the old days.The situation today is how it has always been - some women choose to wear a dastaar, but most don't. Do you have any sources corroborating your other claim about Gurmukh Singh Musafir?

None of the portrayals and accounts of the Sikhs before the 1920s represent Sikh women as mostly wearing turbans, the notable exceptions being female members of the Nihang order (and Mai Bhago, who was conspicuous by her manner of dress). The most common way in which bibiaan wore their kes was in a high top-knot towards the back of their heads, beneath a chunni.

These gorified folks you allude to are also precisely the people (Lahore Singh Sabha) whose movement helped give rise to groups like Bhai Randhir Singh's.

Check this video and start at 1:15:57:

https://youtu.be/Jy8Qee7v7a8?t=1h15m57s

[Balkaar]

Check this video and start at 1:15:57:

https://youtu.be/Jy8Qee7v7a8?t=1h15m57s

Those are precisely the sorts of images I am talking about. Those aren't keskis, they are very large topknots towards the back of the head.

When Sardar Baghel Singh marched into Delhi, the Mughal Shah Alam II came out to welcome him with his begams. A group of ten Singhniaan were invited to the begam's quarters, where these Sikh women fascinated the Shah's wives and courtesans with their talk of warfare, plunder and how to shoot missile weapons. Five of them were dressed like Nihang Singhs, the others wore dresses, heavy ornaments, heavy lower garments and top knots a hand-span-and-a-half in height. This description exactly fits those images you have provided. I find it strange that Bhai Manvir Singh resorts to those images in order to further his mistaken beliefs, especially since the woman on the left is clearly shown to be wearing many sets of golden bangles (Bhai Manvir Singh and most AKJ oppose the wearing of jewellry).

[FriendlyStranger]

Those are precisely the sorts of images I am talking about. Those aren't keskis, they are very large topknots towards the back of the head.

When Sardar Baghel Singh marched into Delhi, the Mughal Shah Alam II came out to welcome him with his begams. A group of ten Singhniaan were invited to the begam's quarters, where these Sikh women fascinated the Shah's wives and courtesans with their talk of warfare, plunder and how to shoot missile weapons. Five of them were dressed like Nihang Singhs, the others wore dresses, heavy ornaments, heavy lower garments and top knots a hand-span-and-a-half in height. This description exactly fits those images you have provided. I find it strange that Bhai Manvir Singh resorts to those images in order to further his mistaken beliefs, especially since the woman on the left is clearly shown to be wearing many sets of golden bangles (Bhai Manvir Singh and most AKJ oppose the wearing of jewellry).

I stand corrected. Thanks for the truth brother.