University of Windsor celebrates ‘Turban Day’

With an aim to make people aware of the existence of other religions in the United States, students at the Windsor University organised a Turban Day on Monday, wrapping the traditional turban around those who volunteered.  

The students and the staff at the university were seen wrapping the long cloth on volunteers who came forward to experience the procedure of tying a turban or dastaar in the traditional way.

“People are curious. We just want to make people aware of what we hold and tie on our head, its significance in our community and religion,” Amolbir Singh Dhillon, a member of the University of Windsor Sikh Student Association told CBC News, who helped organise the event. Talking about the sanctity of the turban, Dhillon said Sikhs are prohibited from doing certain things while wearing their turbans such as smoking or teasing others.

A Pagri or dastaar, associated with Sikhism is an important article of faith, representing the honour, self-respect and spirituality of a Sikh. In the past few months, Hindus and Sikhs in the US have been targeted in apparent hate crimes, falling victim  to Islamophobia and xenophobia.

In a petition submitted to President Trump, the recently established Coalition of Indian American organisations of the US, which organised the event, urged him to intervene in the matter and take steps to punish the culprits under federal hate crimes law.