People

A Weapon Called Grace:
Balpreet Kaur

EDITORIAL, OUR COLLECTIVE GOOD

Approximately five months ago, an example of the cruelty which can arise as a result of online anonymity manifested when a member of the reddit community posted a picture of a young woman, mocking her because of facial hair.

Balpreet Kaur is the young woman in question; she happens to be a Sikh. Her eloquent response to a tasteless online post targeting her facial hair and beard garnered thousands of responses from around the world on various websites which picked up the story. 

Now, Ms. Kaur, a sophomore at Ohio State University studying neuroscience and international development, and Hana Strickland, a third-year political science and international studies major at OSU, passionate about peace building, are the first winners of Ohio State University’s new undergraduate Peace Awards. Each receives a $500 scholarship for tuition and fees.

Balpreet Kaur was nominated because of her contributions to religious dialogue and interfaith understanding, Bezeredi said. Her promotion of tolerance was put to a personal test in the fall when another student posted a photo of her on Reddit’s “funny thread,” prompting a string of cruel comments about her sideburns and beard. Instead of getting upset by the post, Kaur turned it into a teaching moment.

“Yes, I’m a baptized Sikh woman with facial hair,” she wrote. “Yes, I realize that my gender is often confused and I look different than most women. However, baptized Sikhs believe in the sacredness of the 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.

She went on to say that more important than her face is the “smile and the happiness that lie behind” her face. “By not focusing on the physical beauty, I have time to cultivate those inner virtues and hopefully, focus on my life on creating change and progress for this world in any way I can,” she wrote.”

Her response resulted in an apology, both on Reddit and in person, from the student who posted the photo.

She is on the executive board of the Better Together Team and the Sikh Student Association and is a Humanities Scholar. She wants to go to medical school to become a neurosurgeon and study the effects of social stigma on the progression of mental health in developing countries. She hopes to someday open free clinics in Africa.

Ms Balpreet Kaur is the definition of Grace -- and Compassion -- in action.

[Courtesy: Our Collective Good]

March 18, 2013

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