Man who posted photo of Sikh university student apologies

Balpreet Kaur. Submitted photo

In a nice roundup of the sequence of events on website Jezebel, the story goes like this: A user of the social network Reddit going by the handle “european_douchebag” posted a photo of Ohio State University student Balpreet Kaur with the caption “i’m not sure what to conclude from this.”

The reference was to Kaur’s appearance, specifically her facial hair, a result of following the Sikh religious practice of not trimming her hair.

Upon being informed of the post, Kaur refused to retaliate. Rather, she replied with a post of her own, re-run in full on Jezebel, that explains why she looks the way she does. One section of it reads: “Yes, I realize that my gender is often confused and I look different than most women. However, baptized Sikhs believe in the sacredness of this body – it is a gift that has been given to us by the Divine Being [which is genderless, actually] and, must keep it intact as a submission to the divine will. Just as a child doesn’t reject the gift of his/her parents, Sikhs do not reject the body that has been given to us. By crying ‘mine, mine’ and changing this body-tool, we are essentially living in ego and creating a seperateness between ourselves and the divinity within us. By transcending societal views of beauty, I believe that I can focus more on my actions.”

As news of the “story” spread, reaction was overwhelmingly in support of Kaur’s self-assurance, as well as primarily unified in disgust at the original post. Comments to the story on this site followed the same trend.

The development likely led to the original poster apologizing. Again, Jezebel has reproduced the reply in full. A section of it reads: “I’ve read more about the Sikh faith and it was actually really interesting. It makes a whole lot of sense to work on having a legacy and not worrying about what you look like. I made that post for stupid internet points and I was ignorant … So reddit I’m sorry for being an asshole and for giving you negative publicity. Balpreet, I’m sorry for being a closed minded individual. You are a much better person than I am. Sikhs, I’m sorry for insulting your culture and way of life. Balpreet’s faith in what she believes is astounding.”

Tags: Balpreet Kaur, Ohio State University, Sikh

That guy says:

September 27, 2012 at 11:33 am

She’s a girl who grows facial hair. I’m a guy that can barely grow any. She doesn’t shave, and I don’t take hormones to artificially grow a beard. People are different, go figure… Very happy this whole situation turned out how it did.