UNITED SIKHS Meets Ambassador to Rebut France’s Denial of Turban Ban

A Sikh boy has a turban tied over his heNEW DELHI—UNITED SIKHS led a meeting with the French ambassador on Thursday to rebut France’s recent statement that the turban was not banned in France.

UNITED SIKHS director, Gurpreet Singh, submitted to the French ambassador, H.E. Francois Richier, that it was misleading to say that there is no Sikh turban ban in France as the 2004 ban in public schools and on ID photos continues to date.

“We reminded the ambassador that the turban ban continues even though UNITED SIKHS lawyers had won three cases against the ban before the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC),” said Gurpreet Singh.

The French embassy had issued a statement on 2nd February titled ‘No ban on Sikh turban in France’ following the call from Sikhs to the visiting French President, Francois Hollande, to lift the ban on the turban in France. Read the French embassy’s statement in full at http://www.ambafrance-in.org/No-ban-on-turbans.

At the meeting with the ambassador, which was also attended by former ambassador KC Singh, S. Daljeet Singh of UNITED SIKHS and S. Partap Singh of the Sikh Forum, the ambassador was urged to take up the matter with the French Government immediately so that Sikhs in France do not continue to face harassment for wearing the turban.

“Mr. Richier assured us that he would take up with his government the need to consider using biometric ID documents without photos and to consider allowing the patka at schools,” said Gurpreet Singh.

“The meeting was very constructive and the matter was discussed at length. We shall continue to be in touch with him to follow up on the progress of his efforts”, added Gurpreet Singh.

5 COMMENTS

  1. CM of Punjab should invite the French Ambassador or its President or Foreign minister on one of the Festivals of Sikhs

    1) Baisakhi
    or
    2) BandiChor Diwas

    or
    3) Holla Mohalla

    or

    4) World Cup Kabbadi match

    • You had the French President in the capital city of Punjab (Sikh homeland) when he was over a barrel trying to sell fighter jets to India for goodness sake! That was the best time to make him relent over persecution over Sikh dastaar when you had financial leverage as you have repeatedly said Western Empire is only moved by its economic advantage. I ask you again if Indian PM and Punjabi CM could not even be bothered to raise the issue with French President when he was so predisposed to making a moral concession for a trade deal then really what use is either to the Sikhs as we have become a sovereign people without representation.

      • Seems to me that Punjabi CM Badal – supposedly a Sikh leader of a Sikh political party – was more interested in his own economic advantage and doing deals of his own with Mister Modi as let’s face it neither raised the issue not because of ineptitude but rather antipathy toward the Sikh. The more they can do to denigrate the physical identity the easier it is to strike at the very soul of what it is to be a Sikh. Governor General Dalhousie made this very point in his treatment of Maharajah Duleep Singh wherein he wrote that removing Duleep’s outward appearance of a Sikh would lessen his ability to be taken as a Sikh by his kinsmen in the Punjab (the inference being that if Duleep did not look like a SIkh then there would be less chance of him regaining the throne of the Sikhs).

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