Singh allowed to keep beard and turban while in active duty.
AB Wire
A Sikh serving the US Army, Capt. Simratpal Singh, has won not only a huge victory for himself but for the entire community at a time when the focus has turned increasingly towards one’s religion and way of life, following fears of domestic terrorist attacks: he will be allowed to wear his turban and beard while on active duty.
The Army has granted a temporary religious accommodation to Singh, when he reports to a new post on Monday.
My Sikh faith and military service are two core parts of who I am,” Capt. Simratpal Singh, 27, said in a statement issued by the Sikh Coalition, on Monday.
“I am proud to serve my country as an Officer and I look forward to being able to continue serving without having to give up my religious beliefs,” he added.
“Anyone who observed our unshaven special forces in Afghanistan knows a beard won’t stop an American soldier,” said Eric Baxter, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit public interest law firm representing Singh.
“Now the Pentagon just needs to make Captain Singh’s exemption permanent. In fact, it should explain why it is using the beard ban to discriminate against any Sikh American,” Baxter added, reported the Hill.
ThinkProgress reported that last Wednesday, the Army announced in a letter it would grant a religious exception to Singh, a decorated Afghanistan veteran and graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, temporarily allowing him to grow a beard and wrap his hair in a turban. Singh, a Sikh soldier who had been previously forced to shave his hair and beard, will be able to grow and publicly display both during the month-long trial period.
“It is wonderful. I had been living a double life, wearing a turban only at home,” Singh, 27, told the New York Times. “My two worlds have finally come back together. I had been living a double life, wearing a turban only at home. My two worlds have finally come back together.”
ThinkProgress reported The Army will decide at the end of the test period — January 8 — whether or not to make Singh’s exception permanent. Until then, officials instructed him to keep his beard, turban, and uncut hair worn “in a neat and tidy manner that presents a professional and well-groomed appearance.”
“The bulk of your hair, beard, or turban may not be such that it impairs your ability to wear the Kevlar helmet or other protective equipment or impedes your ability to operate your assigned weapon, military equipment, or machinery,” the letter, signed by Assistant Secretary of the Army Debra Wada, read.
The news marks the first time in 10 years the military has allowed an active-duty solider to grow a beard. The Army has previously allowed Sikh doctors to grow beards and wear turbans, things that are seen as key expressions of faith by most Sikh men. But even those exceptions were evaluated on a case-by-case basis, with the understanding that a transfer to a combat unit or even another command would require another waiver of exception. An ROTC enlistee was also allowed to grow his beard and wear a turban earlier this year, but only after a federal court reversed the ROTC’s decision to deny his request for a uniform exemption, the report said.
The New York Times reported Singh saying: “Your self-image, what you believe in, is cut away.”
For a long time after he was forced to shave his beard and shorn his long hair, he would shave without looking in the mirror.
That was almost 10 years ago. The cadet graduated, led a platoon of combat engineers who cleared roadside bombs in Afghanistan and was awarded the Bronze Star.
The Army does not comment on individual personnel decisions, said Lt. Col. Jennifer R. Johnson, a spokeswoman, reported the Times. She added that future requests for accommodations would be evaluated “on a case-by-case basis, considering the impact on unit and individual readiness, unit cohesion, morale, discipline, and health and safety of the force.”
For years, the Army has argued that beards in the ranks — religious or not — threatened the very foundations of military order and discipline.
The United States military has become increasingly inclusive, allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly, and women to serve in combat roles. But it has held a stiff line on uniforms and grooming standards. Though over the centuries these standards have included powdered wigs and Civil War mutton chops, in recent decades the military has insisted on men being clean-shaven with hair shorn high and tight.
Resistance to departures from uniformity is so strong that while official standards allow for toupees, it took a Supreme Court case and an act of Congress in the 1980s to clear the way for skullcaps, the Times reported.
This summer, a United States District Court judge rejected the safety argument, noting that more than 100,000 troops have been allowed to grow beards for medical reasons such as acne and sensitive skin. The judge ruled the Army’s denial was illegal. But the decision applied only to students enrolling in R.O.T.C., leaving the larger question of beards for active-duty troops untouched.
“It was a way to identify the Sikhs, who became a sort of military order that stood up against oppression,” said Kamaljeet Singh Kalsi, a doctor who is a major in the Army Reserve, on the Sikhs wearing a turban and beard, part of their religious tenets.
Major Kalsi got permission to grow a beard in 2009. He was the first of only three Sikhs to receive permission before Captain Singh. Two Muslims and a Jewish rabbi also have been granted accommodations since 2009. But all apparently served either as chaplains or in specialty medical fields, a spokeswoman for the Army said. No combat soldiers had been given a pass.
After Captain Singh had his hair and beard cut at West Point, he continued following Sikh teachings. He went to temple on Sunday. While on roadside bomb-clearing missions in Afghanistan, he ate only vegetarian versions of military field rations. But he said his faith demanded that he do more.
“A true Sikh is supposed to stand out, so he can defend those who cannot defend themselves,” he said to the Times. “I see that very much in line with the Army values.”