At weekly Sunday afternoon meetings at the Sikh Coalition’s cheery downtown Broad Street offices in New York City, USA, students share stories of abuse while working on projects like anti-bullying workshops, a YouTube show and a nationwide Sikh art contest.

“When we were alone it was really hard,” said Rajan Kaur, a 17-year-old from Morristown, New Jersey. “But, when we are together we feel like we can accomplish anything.”

The Sikh Coalition was formed in New York after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 to provide aid and advocacy to those discriminated against because of their Sikh faith. The Sikh religion is not related to Islam, but the two are often conflated because Sikhs wear a turban to cover their long hair.

In middle school, kids teased Gurwinder Singh, now a 20-year-old college junior, by saying he was related to Osama bin Laden, with some students even chasing him once. “I yelled continuously for help. There were so many adults and students around me, but no one stepped forward to help. It was all over when my head was smashed into a metallic edge of a door,” Gurwinder recalled.

“I got made fun of for my long hair,” said Rajan Kaur. “I look different from the other girls in my town and they say things like , ‘Oh you’re hairy.’”

Each weekly meeting of the Junior Sikh Coalition begins with a meditation, then the teenagers and young adults split into groups to work on various projects. In one corner Rajan Kaur and Pawanpreet Singh created a makeshift television studio work on a YouTube show.

“It will be a funny show, like ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,’ but with topics important to us,” Pawanpreet Singh, 15 years old, snappily dressed in a blue sweater and light blue Vans sneakers, with the patka, a thin flexible fabric that male Sikhs often wear underneath their turbans, covering a top knot of hair on the crown of his head.

Other projects include traveling anti-bullying workshops, as well as an upcoming trip to Washington, D.C. for a day of advocacy. The coalition also wants to create a nationwide art contest for kids, with a long-haired, Sikh woman mascot named SuperGirl.

“I wish the Junior Sikh Coalition was around when I was in school. Things may have been different for me then,” said another member, Premi.

(Courtesy: The Wall Street Journal. Edited for sikhchic.com)

April 11, 2013