From National Public Radio
Monday, 105 lawmakers from both parties sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, urging him to change a relatively obscure uniform requirement for the U.S. armed forces that some argue infringes on religious beliefs.
People who observe religions that require specific hair or dress traditions have to seek an accommodation from a superior to break the Defense Department’s uniform requirements.
Dr. Kamal Kalsi was the first observant Sikh to apply for the accommodation since the rule took effect in the 1980s. As a devout Sikh, Kalsi doesn’t cut his hair. He wraps his hair up in a turban and doesn’t shave his beard. Keeping his hair long is an obligatory article of his Sikh faith.
Kalsi had joined the U.S. Army Reserves back in 2001, seven months before Sept. 11. He was in medical school, training to be an emergency room doctor. And like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather before him, he wanted to serve his country.
But when he tried to volunteer for active duty in 2009, Kalsi ran into a problem: His turban and beard broke the Department of Defense uniform and grooming rules.
“A turban and beard interfere with uniformity, possibly may interfere with unit cohesion, and may pose a safety hazard,” Kalsi explains, paraphrasing the Department of Defense’s argument.
To serve, he applied for the religious accommodation.
“It was an amicable process between myself, my superiors and the Army,” he tells All Things Considered host Arun Rath. “But it was a pretty monster task. It took nearly 15,000 petitioners on a letter to then-Defense Secretary [Robert] Gates. It took 50 congressional signatures. It took pressure from the White House, a major law firm, then a civil rights advocate group, to get one soldier in.”
Since Kalsi was given his accommodation in 2010, two other Sikhs have moved to active duty: Capt. Tejdeep Rattan is a dentist, currently serving at Fort Bragg in North Carolina; and Cpl. Simranpreet Lamba, stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, is the Army’s only enlisted Sikh soldier. Their review periods were “incrementally easier” than Kalsi’s, but still arduous, he says.
“But the fact remains that this laborious process remains a barrier to Sikhs serving. It creates a bit of a chilling effect on those that wish to serve,” Kalsi says.
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