Kaur Power

This thread, Kaur Power, is here to celebrate Sikh women and their accomplishments. So GO SWAN!

Malaysia's SWAN -
Sikh Women's Awareness Networkby DYA SINGH

[Editor: The author, Dya Singh, is no ordinary soul. A musician who was born and brought up in Malaysia, he now lives in Melbourne, Australia. He travels the world with his band, which includes a crew of wonderful instrumentalists and his three talented daughters, singing Sikh spiritual songs and playing Sikh and world music for both Sikh and non-Sikh audiences. For no small reason, he is proclaimed the world over as the natural heir to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the late doyen of world music. Recently, in May 2009, he undertook his annual march across Malaysia, a routine that has become a regular event to support one community cause or the other. This year, he was accompanied by the famous musician, Vikram Singh (formerly Vic Briggs, lead guitarist of the 60's pop group, the "Animals'") and a number of others; they walked over 170 km. from Kuala Lumpur to Melaka (in Malaysia) to coincide with a local festival (the annual fair marking the anniversary of Baba Sohan Singh ji). The walk, dubbed the "Unity Walk" , is geared to raising greater awareness of the necessity of physical exercise and the outdoors for all.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/business-and-lifestyle/22488-kaur-power.html

This year's walk also intended to draw a spotlight on the work of SWAN - Malaysia's Sikh Women's Awareness Network - which also co-sponsored this year's walk and helped organize it throughout.]

The swan is one of the most beautiful, graceful and elegant of birds. Therefore, the word makes such a lovely acronym for a Sikh women's organization, run by women, to look after the needs of women!

Though Sikhism preaches complete equality for women alongside men, its members have fallen under the influence of the patriarchal majority communities they find themselves in and often fail in this in actual practice.

If men do cater for any needs of women, it is normally as a fringe issue. This is not anyone's fault, because no formal Sikh mainstream organizations seem to be set up with women's needs as the focus specifically.

So, quite rightly, women have to take up that challenge themselves - "women's business" - for women, about women, by women.

In Malaysia, that need appears to have been ably fulfilled by SWAN.

The Sikh Women's Awareness Network ("SWAN") has become a shining example and a role model, I believe, for women around the globe - to look after their special needs, to act as a pressure group for lobbying purposes and especially as a support group for the welfare and advancement of women.

The organization came into being in 2000 as an idea borne out of the "Akal Purakh Ki Fauj" organization (APKF) which has now become an international organization spearheaded by Bhai Autar Singh Ji of Malaysia, a former "jathedar" of the Sikh Naujawan Sabha Malaysia and also a prime architect of the premier, and the first, of internet Sikh discussion groups, "Gurmat Learning Zone".

As APKF's leadership in Malaysia was predominantly female, it proved to be the perfect lynchpin for SWAN as an organization to reach out to more women.

Furthermore, for the Malaysian chapter, to harness assistance and support from government agencies, especially the Ministry for Women, Family and Community Development, it was found that women could not depend on any other Sikh organisation, but needed to form an organization of their own.

Under the guidance of S. Autar Singh and the capable leadership of his wife, Rajinder Kaur, alongside some prominent Sikh women in Kuala Lumpur such as Professor Kuldip Kaur, Associate Professor Kiranjit Kaur and Dr. Manjit Kaur (current President), SWAN came into existence ...

"... to help improve the quality of life of Malaysian Sikh women and their families - to empower women to build happy and dynamic families ready to face the challenges of globalisation through harmonious and holistic developmental programmes". [President's report from SWAN newsletter: Issue 1 - January 2006.]

Ms. Sharizat (the Federal Minister for Women, Family and Community Development) encouraged SWAN to get registered as a Society to get direct funding for its activities. Membership spread quickly throughout the peninsula, including far-away Sarawak on the island of Borneo (also part of Malaysia), as projects like immunisation programs, exclusive health checks for women, self-improvement programmes, courses on how to manage finances, sewing, gourmet cooking and other such activities began.

A quick glimpse through their annual reports and newsletters shows a flurry of activities being conducted exclusively for women and children. Besides the projects mentioned earlier, there are classes, workshops, seminars and forums on a wide spectrum of activities like: health and legal awareness; health screening (pap smear) camps and other women's health awareness camps by specialists; life enrichment camps; workshops on single mothers - "Standing Tall", for example; floral arrangement courses; web design and computer literacy programmes; how to set up a small business; career talks; pre-marriage counselling courses; public speaking courses; healthy eating habits and good diet; skincare; self-empowerment courses; breast cancer awareness campaigns; menopause counselling and medical knowledge to deal with it; even Sukhmani Sahib prayers for Tsunami victims and special Vaisakhi celebration programmes!

Various local self-improvement experts, like Mrs. Jagjit Singh and former national footballer and now football commentator Shebby Singh, work tirelessly to hold nationwide classes on women's self-improvement and empowerment, child-raising, motivational, study skills, medical and health issues, etc.

I had the honour of interacting with some of the current committee members who were actively involved with our "walk" from Kuala Lumpur to Melaka (about 170km) recently (May 2009), which SWAN helped to manage and publicize - a job I must say, which was handled with precision and professionalism.

It was this professionalism that piqued my interest in SWAN, yet a fledgling organization, but one which seemed to be doing a tremendous amount of good amongst Sikh women here.

Prominent amongst these dynamic ladies are Dr. Manjit Kaur (the current president), Bibi Harbans Kaur, (the logistics "workhorse",) immediate past president Rajinder Kaur and one I affectionately call "the mouthpiece" - Gina (Gurmeet Kaur), who is a very popular radio DJ in the Malay language, doing a popular programme on Bollywood music and stars.

She reputedly has a "following" of 3.2 million listeners predominantly of Malay origin! I listened to her on radio one evening and was bowled over at her command of the Malay language and the occasional Punjabi, English and Hindi thrown in, and the warmth and response of her listeners on talk-back.
Below are some interesting views gleaned from them in conversation.

Q. How do you manage such a vast spectrum of activities?

There is a great deal of hard work involved but we do have great support from not only other Sikh organizations, but also other women's organizations and government and NGO's, especially gurdwaras, to carry out our activities.

Q. How do Sikh men generally react/respond to the various activities that you conduct?

After much laughter and statements of - "we cannot answer that on the grounds that we might incriminate ourselves"- I was able to get this out of them:
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=22488

"In general, we have wide support from men, but there will always be the "knockers", which we believe is good because they keep us on our toes and sometimes their negative views give us something to think about, and positives can always come out of their negativities. Our own menfolk give us tremendous support for us to continue with this work of supporting and elevating our womenfolk. Single mothers, especially divorced mothers and mothers with incapacitated husbands, sometimes get a rough ride within the community, but SWAN has made headway in helping them along, and raising their self-esteem because they now have an organization to which they can belong without prejudice and though there is great transparency about our activities and especially the accounts, we do have complete confidentiality for individual welfare cases."

(Members would not comment on what they meant by "rough ride", but I believe that stems from the fact that our gurdwaras and gurdwara committees are not well equipped to help welfare cases "in confidence". Any welfare help that is extended becomes public knowledge, to the embarrassment of the recipients. There are also cases of whole Sikh families, let alone individuals, converting to Christianity just because Christian organizations came to their aid, with no aid forthcoming from Sikh organizations. There are a few other Sikh "welfare'"organizations one hears of but as to how effective they are, is hard to gauge. In some cases, one only hears about them when they hold lavish "dinners'"as a means to collect money for their charity work!)

Q. What kind of interaction, or reaction, do you get from other Sikh organizations?

In general, we have good support from our Malaysian Gurdwara Council, and the Sikh Naujawan Sabha. The Akal Purakh Ki Fauj is one organization which is always there to give a hand, because it is predominantly run by womenfolk and is about raising our children the Sikhi way and into the 21st century.

But there are times when issues which we feel are important are not considered important enough by other Sikh organizations. For example, the issue of pre-marriage counselling. This project was launched as "Smartstart" by the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, Malaysia. Two SWAN committee members were involved in the development of this module. We were taken aback when other national Sikh organizations - the Malaysian Gurdwara Council, for example - generally felt that the few minutes of impromptu sikhya (advice) given by the granthi just before the Lavan, was adequate advice and education for a newlywed couple! Therefore, we have to fight to ensure that issues like these are implemented throughout the country, notwithstanding what other Sikh organizations may or may not think.

SWAN is a far cry from the traditional "issteri satsang" concept that we know of traditionally. This is an organization which looks not only after the spiritual and social needs of Sikh women but also their economic, intellectual and physical wellbeing - their self-esteem, freedom from physical and psychological abuse and insistence on sharing of household responsibilities by their menfolk.

This is what Bibi Harbans Kaur, the vice-President, had to say:

"SWAN's executive committee comprises of volunteers. They are diligent and committed to creating awareness and give their time to charity work to help empower other women so that they can make a difference. The organization believes that they can undertake any activity, as women play many roles in society and recognizes that women are the pillars of society, hence, their wide and varied programmes and activities not only catering for the healthy development of women, but also to enrich their families and in the process, the entire community."

The organization has "cut its teeth", so to speak, at the community level, and now have ambitious plans to work with the mainstream of Malaysian society and network with individuals and organizations to eradicate factors that contribute to poverty and gender, ethnic and religious inequality.
It appears that Malaysia has a very strong network of women's organizations to attend to women's issues within the country and SWAN has fitted into this network with some impact, for progress of Sikh women, in fact, all women, in Malaysia.

All I can say is that SWAN is giving Malaysian Sikhs and male dominated Sikh organizations a run for their money and making it possible for women, to fall in line with Nanak's view of "So keo mendha aakhiyai jit jamay raajan". (Why consider those less, who give birth to kings?)

What next? Bungy-jumping? Para-gliding?

Why not!
Go, SWAN!







SOURCE http://www.sikhchic.com/current_events/malaysias_swan_sikh_womens_awareness_network

 
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I am in race to become governor: Indian American woman


July 28th, 2009 SindhToday





Toronto, July 28 (IANS) Yet another Indian American, this time a woman born to Sikh parents from Amritsar, is in the race to become governor of a US state.

Nikki Randhawa Haley, 37, who is in the fray for the post of governor of South Carolina in the US, says she is in the race to win. If she gets elected, Nikki will be the first Indian American woman to become governor in the US, and the second Indian after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana state.

A member of the South Carolina state assembly since 2004, Nikki is one of the three candidates to seek nomination from her Republican party for the 2010 elections.

“I don’t do anything halfway — I’m in this race to win,” Haley told IANS in an interview. “I am confident that come November 2010, the people of South Carolina will send me to the Governor’s Mansion.”

And she was quick to add: “When they (voters) do, I will immediately get to work to give them progress that makes them proud.”

Born to Sikh parents from Amritsar, Nikki said she is now in the midst of raising money for her campaign to succeed.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=22488

“As we travel across the state meeting with folks and spreading the message of bringing good government back to South Carolina, folks have been incredibly responsive.

“This is going to be an expensive race, and we need all the support we can get, but I have every confidence we will raise every dollar we need to win,” she said.

Her message is resonating with the people of her state as she campaigns on a three-point agenda: reining in out-of-control spending, making government more accountable and tackling high unemployment rate by taking care of South Carolina businesses.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=22488

Though she joined the race for nomination much after the other two aspirants, Nikki has already raised over $200,000.

“In a little less than six weeks we were able to raise over $211,000 — a solid showing in about half a financial quarter,” said the mother of two children.

Asked whether her Indian background will matter in the race, she said: “What matters most in South Carolina — and I imagine elsewhere in the country — is not the personalities of the candidates but the message they carry.

“Our message of bringing good government back to the people of this state, creating jobs by reforming our tax code so it’s flatter and fairer, and reminding government of the value of a dollar resonates with all the people of this state.”

Reminded of her maiden campaign in 2004 when her opponents had raised the issue of her ethnic background, she said: “I imagine my opponents will throw everything they can and more at me over the course of the campaign.

“That said, those opponents will not be the focus of our campaign — we will keep our focus on reforming the backward way South Carolina’s government operates and bringing good government back to the people.”

Nikki added: “I am very proud of my background and how I was raised. Just as in 2004 I will hold my head high and focus on what I can do for the people of this state.”

If you are determined to achieve something, there can be no obstacle. This has been proved by Harmanpreet Kaur Chahal, a blind athlete, who has won one gold medal and one bronze medal in athletics in the World Youth and Student Championship held recently at Colarado, USA.

The 14-year-old athlete, who competes in the under-B III category of blind athletes, won the gold medal in shot put and bronze medal in 100 m race in the championship. “It was a learning experience for me to play in a country like USA and I was very much confident of my success in the championship. I am very thankful to the national federation of Blind, which sponsored my trip to USA,” said an elated Chahal.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=22488

Harmanpreet started practicing athletics in the 2006 and since then there was no looking back for her. “I started taking part in 100 m and 200 m races along with long jump. But later I shifted to shot put. It has been a unique experience for me to compete in the events,” said Chahal. The young athlete, who is a student of Jarjas Public School, Machiwara, trains under the guidance of Randhir Singh. Chahal’s father Gurpreet Singh, who is a class IV employee in PUDA, was also an international blind athlete. “I have represented India in cricket for blind players and I have always encouraged Harmanpreet to play,” says Singh.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=22488

For her achievement, Avtar Singh Makkar, president of Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee announced an award of Rs 51,000.

I think the important thing is keeping one's heart pure. Women always get loaded with the burden of keeping a culture together, since they are the people who have the babies, in addition to keeping the house, working etc.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=22488
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=22488

If a culture (religious, or national, or both) is going to survive it needs to meet the needs of its members. THat is not to say that it needs to utterly change itself to "fit with fashion" but rather that we must be flexible enough to realise the shifts in the balance, and stop *just* putting responsibility on Kaurs to maintain the Sikh community by not marrying outside: surely they should *want* to marry inside...if they don't...then why don't they?

And if they were truly equal in all matters of religion within the Khalsa, as they should be, then surely they would be more effective in teaching any children they had even if they are married to non-Sikhs...and perhaps even be more inclined to do so?

The Strength and Beauty of Women in the Sikh faith and in the the Global Community

October 5th, 2009 by Daljit Singh

Recently, I was honoured to receive a request to make a contribution to Jaikara Media magazine from its editor, Harminder Kaur Bhogal. Jaikar Media magazine is a strong voice for Sikh women. It was coincidental that at the time she contected me, I was just editing the chapter on 'Women in the Sikh faith' for a yet unpublished book on "The Sikhs of Today."

There has been much of coverage in magazines and on Sikhnet along with the popular "Sikh Times" recently about women and the strengths and some of the challenges they have to currently face in life. There are so many attributes of women upon which I can focus but the recent press coverage of the US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, during her visit to Asia caught my attention.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=22488

In this article I will excerpt some of the contents of these articles and it would be a great pleasure when she next visits the UK to interview her on behalf of the Sikh Times on her perspective on women. Her speech on that subject was entitled: Invest in women and beat the downturn.

On her trip to China, she met women activists who told her about their efforts to advance conditions for women in their country. The woman faced major challenges such as employment, discrimination, inadequate health care, domestic violence and antiquated laws that hindered women's progress. "Time and tide waits for no man" and whether the situation has changed since her last visit will depend on society and their attitudes towards women. I

It is spokeswomen like Gurjeet Kaur, Editor of the Sikh Times, Harminder Kaur Bhogal and many others who stand up for women everywhere and strive to articulate their concerns and their rights in society.

Hilary Clinton had this to say:

"The problems we face today are too big and too complex to be solved without the full participation of women. Strengthening women's rights is not only a continuing moral obligation - it is also a necessity as we face a global economic crisis, the spread of terrorism and nuclear weapons, regional conflicts that threaten families and communities, and climate change along with the dangers it presents to the world's health and security. These challenges demand everything we've got. We will not solve them through half measures. And yet too often, on these issues and many more, half the world is left behind."

It is inspirational to hear this from a stateswoman. She continued:

"Today, more women are leading governments, businesses, and non-governmental organisations than in previous generations. But that good news has a flip side of the coin. Women still comprise the majority of the world's poor, unfed and unschooled. They are still subjected to rape as a tactic of war and exploited by traffickers globally in a billion-dollar criminal business."

Indeed the picture looks grim when one reads about the seamy side of how women are exploited. In some societies the birth of a woman is neither accepted nor acknowledged. Baby girls are smothered at birth, thrown in the Yellow River to drown in China, and expectant mothers in India terminate their pregnancy upon discovering the female gender of their baby.

"Despite progress made by women in society; honour killings, maiming, female genital mutilation, and other violent and degrading practices that target women are still tolerated in too many places today. Just a few months ago something tragic happened in Afghanistan: a young girl in Afghanistan was on her way to school when a group of men threw acid in her face, permanently damaging her eyes, because they objected to her seeking an education. Their attempt to terrorise the girl and her family failed. She said, "My parents told me to keep coming to school even if I am killed."

It is unthinkable and unimaginable to me that this could happen in current modern society but it goes on covertly!

That young girl's courage and resolve should serve as an inspiration to all of us - women and men - to continue to work as hard as we can to ensure that girls and women are accorded the rights and opportunities they deserve.

At times of major global financial crisis, Hilary Clinton maintained that:

"We must remember what a growing body of research tells us: Supporting women is a high-yield investment, resulting in stronger economies, more vibrant civil societies, healthier communities and greater peace and stability. And investing in women is a way to support future generations. Women spend much more of their incomes on food, medicine and schooling for children."

I totally endorse this perspective and it must become a global priority.

She continued:

"Women need to be given the chance to work for fair wages, access credit and launch businesses. They deserve equity in the political sphere, with equal access at the voting booth and the freedom to petition their government as well as run for office. They have a right to health care for themselves and their families, and a right to send their children to school - both their sons and their daughters; and they have a vital role to play in establishing peace and stability worldwide. In regions torn apart by war, it is often the women who find a way to reach across differences and discover common ground."

In the context of the Sikh faith, equality has been advocated for the past 550 years and Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the founder of the faith, advocated equality and tolerance amongst the community. In the Siri Guru Granth Sahib we hear over and over that women play a major role in the community and the recognition of their equality.

I value women's contributions and I was absolutely spellbound a by a video I saw on SikhNet called "Kaurs in Crowns." The video was taken at the Sikh Student Camp in 2008 in the UK. I religiously attend these camps to observe and report the positive experience of our Sikh faith. This was one of these wonderful camps. The video on Sikhnet impressed me deeply. The title screen speaks for itself: "So why call her bad?"

The shabd by Guru Nanak Dev Ji which is used as the music for the video sums everything up beautifully and the message is nice and clear for others to absorb and treat women with respect, magnanimity and great admiration.

In addition to some of the relevant points raised above by Hilary Clinton, the Secretary of State for the USA, it shows that women's role in society is crucial and is a lynch pin of any truly successful and productive society.

We are born of woman, we are conceived in the womb of woman,
We are engaged and married to a woman.
We make friends with a woman and life continues because of woman.
When one woman dies, we take another one, we are bound with the world through woman.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=22488
We grow up stronger and wiser having drunk milk from the breast of woman.
Why should we talk ill of her, who gives birth to Kings?
Everyone is born from a woman; there is none without her.
Only the One True Lord is without a woman.
(Guru Nanak, Asa Di Var, Ang 473)

In the video, all the women, some of whom were wearing their keski or turban for the very first time, look elegant and royal; and behind those beautiful smiles lie hidden the talents, strengths, creativity and in fact, the very foundation that society requires to build a healthier and strong world to take it forward for peace and stability.
At the moment, the world is torn apart by strife, political wrangling and misery resulting from war imposed by nations on other nations because of materialism, greed and ego-driven motives of individuals or groups of individuals.

These multiple problems we face today are too colossal and complex to be solved without the full participation of women.

Source for this story at this link
The Strength and Beauty of Women in the Sikh faith and in the the Global Community | SikhNet

And,of course, I had to go watch the video. We really are a great-looking bunch, especially when we look like who we really are.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=22488

It's true that tying a turban doesn't make anyone a good Sikh, but I think it probably makes most of us a better Sikh than we would be without one. (I was going to list KP- Gill as the exception - but I won't. Might he have been even more brutal if he didn't tie a one? Who can know?)

I know that I have never seen a Sikh - Singh or Kaur - who looks stronger, more majestic, more royal without a Turban than with one. All of us seem to stand a little taller turbaned than not.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=22488

As to the rest of this article, it seems incredible to me that there is or ever was this stupid prejudice and discrimination against us women. Unbelievable.

A Sikh Woman Warrior Tells Her Tale
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=22488

? A Sikh Woman Warrior Tells Her Tale | SikhNet

I hope this thread becomes a long-lasting and running record of the greatness of Sikh women.

Women are supposed to be treated equally-- but are men(and for us--especially the Sikh Men) ready to accept it????????????????

NO, (EVEN IN SIKH COMMUNITY--NOT MORE THAN .000001%)

People who read Gurbani carefully with complete understanding-- they supposidly know Gurbani parralleles male and female..... they been saying this for last 500 years (at least)

AND

In Sri Harimandir Sahib - Woman are not allowed to do Kirtan .. Woman are not allowed near Baba Ji's Swari during Prikarma -- I feel it is clear hypocrisy..
These two facts show clearly that Men can never let that equality take place. I mean --shouldn't the equality start from there instead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We call it-- Most significant place for Sikhs.....Women have tried to change this and take their equal spot-- could never happen.

When a girl is born in a Sikh family -- more than 95% families are unhappy ... and what to say about female infanticide.... Yes in some cases it is forced by men but I have seen women equally participating in it...

Sikh women are no better than other women in the world. We expect the equality because we think that our counterparts also know what Guru Ji says... Unfortunately they only know this-- they dont actually follow His Words..

I believe that if we need to change this-- we need to start teaching our sons and grandsons to respect women equally....our daughters and grand daugters should also be taught that they are no inferiors.....AND Make the other women aware of this need as well........ And I must say, not just think of doing it for Sikhs, but for the humanity in general.

Mothers and Grandmothers can do it so easily-- all they need to do is- treat them equally, and once it is ingrained from the begining-- they will never forget -- I HOPE and PRAY...