A US court has ordered the Marine Corps (USMC) to allow Sikh recruits to wear beards and turbans.
According to the French news agency AFP, an elite unit of the US Navy claimed that allowing religious exemptions would reduce harmony, the court rejected the claim and ruled in favor of the Sikhs.
Sikhism, a faith that emerged in South Asia 5 centuries ago, prohibits men from cutting their hair or beards and mandates the wearing of a turban.
The U.S. Marine Corps last year denied three Sikhs who took the recruitment test a waiver from 13 weeks of basic training and regulations on growing beards during potential combat situations.
The Marine Corps said the three men could keep their beards and turbans without training.
A 3-judge bench of the US Court of Appeals in Washington disagreed with the Marine Corps’ argument, saying the Marines had not presented an argument as to whether beards and turbans interfered with protective equipment or physical training.
The court said that the Marines exempted men from shaving their beards under certain circumstances and allowed women to keep their hairstyles and get large tattoos (‘which are a fine expression of individual identity’). Is.
According to the report, Judge Paredesia Millett wrote in her judgment that despite the need to harmonize individuals from different backgrounds during training, some outward signs of individuality can be considered.
The court also pointed out in its decision that while beard regulations have been in place since 1976, hairy Marines have not been a problem from the Revolutionary War to the modern era.
The court issued a preliminary injunction allowing the two recruits, Malap Singh Chahal and Jaskrit Singh, to begin training with their faith requirements while a district court conducts a thorough examination of the case.