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[[File:Photograph of a young Sikh woman leading the standard bearers at the Yuba City Sikh Parade, by Jasleen Kaur, 10 April 2008.jpg|thumb|Photograph of a young Sikh woman leading the standard bearers at the Yuba City Sikh Parade, by Jasleen Kaur, 10 April 2008]]
The relationship between [[Women in Sikhism|Sikh women]] and the [[turban]] (''[[dastar]]'' or ''pagh'') is complex. Although wearing a turban is traditionally a masculine-practice, some Sikh women opt to wear turbans for personal reasons.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Gupta |first=Rajeev |date=14 February 2016 |title=Why are some Sikh women now wearing the turban? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35563415 |access-date=30 June 2025 |work=BBC}}</ref> Most Sikh women instead wear a chunni.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/CRCL_SikhHeadCoveringPoster_2005.pdf |title=Common Sikh American Head Coverings |publisher=Department of Homeland Security, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in conjunction with the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, United States Government |year=2005 |pages=1–2 |quote=Some Sikh women also wear turbans (photo c); however, many wear a cloth called a chunni to cover their head (photo d).}}</ref> Historically, turbans were mostly exclusively worn by Sikh men rather than women.<ref name=":1" /> In modern-times, some Sikh girls and women have started donning it.<ref name=":1" /> The practice of Sikh women wearing turbans is almost exclusively a practice of diasporic, young Sikh women, whilst it is virtually non-existent amongst the middle-aged and elderly generations, or in India.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Jakobsh |first=Doris R. |title=Young Sikhs in a Global World: Negotiating Traditions, Identities and Authorities |last2=Myrvold |first2=Kristina |date=Mar 9, 2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781134790883 |editor-last=Jacobsen |editor-first=Knut A. |pages=125–148 |chapter=Chapter 6: Marking the Female Sikh Body: Reformulating and Legitimating Sikh Women's Turbaned Identity on the World Wide Web}}</ref>

Whilst turbanned Sikh men are unequivocally representatives of Sikh masculinity, turbanned Sikh women cannot be said to be unequivocal representatives of Sikh femininity or womanhood.<ref name=":2" /> For Sikh men, the turban is a symbol of their masculine identity, where as for Sikh women it more represents an obscuring, a "de-feminizing" or "de-gendering" of their female identity.<ref name=":2" /> The trend of Sikh women wearing turban also developed as a means of distinguishing Sikh women from their [[Women in Islam|Muslim]] or [[Women in Hinduism|Hindu]] counterparts from [[Indian people|Indian]] or [[Pakistanis|Pakistani]]-backgrounds.<ref name=":2" />

== History ==
[[File:A Sikh woman, Punjab (1870's) 02.jpg|thumb|Photograph of a Sikh woman in the Punjab after her wedding wearing a ''[[Dupatta|chunni]]'', ca.1870's]]
Traditionally, Sikh women wore a ''[[Dupatta|chunni]]'' or ''dupatta'' (headscarf) rather than a turban.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> Sikh women who are not part of the Khalsa usually only cover their hair when they are around older family members (especially males) or when visiting gurdwaras.<ref name=":2" />

The turban is not one of the 5Ks mandated in mainstream Sikhism, rather it has become a tool to help manage one of the actual five Ks, ''[[Kesh (Sikhism)|kesh]]'' (uncut hair).<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Singh |first=Nikky-Guninder Kaur |title=The Birth of the Khalsa: A Feminist Re-Memory of Sikh Identity |date=Sep 29, 2005 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=9780791465837 |pages=187–188}}</ref> Early Sikh literature mostly focuses on the male Khalsa identity and either do not discuss women’s inclusion into the order or are highly contradictory.<ref name=":2" /> The ''Chaupa Singh Rehitnama'' states that women cannot become a baptized Khalsa and those that administer ''khande-di-pahul'' to women should be shunned, instead prescribing ''charan pahul'' to women initiates (nectar of the foot rather than the sword).<ref name=":2" /> The ''Prem Sumarag'', dated to between the early eighteenth century to mid-nineteenth century, states that both men and women can be initiated into the Khalsa.<ref name=":2" /> In the text, men are mandated to wear ''[[Kachera|kacheera]]'' (breeches) and weapons whilst women are prescribed to wear a black skirt and [[bodice]].<ref name=":2" /> In the patriarchal culture at the time, women did not represent "the body of the Guru", they were not named "Singh", they did not carry weapons nor did they don turbans.<ref name=":2" /> The "warrior-saint" image promulgated by the Khalsa was exclusive to men and women were to be dutiful wives of their husbands and study the Sikh scripture in the company of other women.<ref name=":2" /> Thus, the turban was a male-signifier of Sikh identity.<ref name=":2" /> As per Purnima Dhava, respect and prestige in 18th century Punjab was tied to both women and turbans, where alliances were made through the exchanging of turbans and offering their womenfolk (daughters) to be wed.<ref name=":2" /> Ceremonies associated with the Sikh turban were also male-gendered, such as the turban tying ceremony, known as the ''Rasam Pagri'' or ''Rasam Dastar'', when a patriarch dies and his eldest son takes over the familial responsibilities by tying a turban in front of others.<ref name=":2" /> Furthermore, during Sikh wedding ceremonies, such as the ''[[Anand Karaj]]'', the male groom will wear a turban, regardless if he does so in his regular life or not.<ref name=":2" />
[[File:Painting of a Sikh couple featuring a warrior and his wife, ca.1790–1800.jpg|thumb|Painting of a Sikh couple featuring a warrior and his wife, ca.1790–1800]]
Modern artwork of [[Mai Bhago]] often depict her wearing a turban in-battle.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title=Young Sikhs in a Global World: Negotiating Traditions, Identities and Authorities |date=Mar 9, 2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781134790883 |editor-last=Jacobsen |editor-first=Knut A. |edition=reprint |quote=Another central image having received legendary status online is Mai Bhago, both within Sikh art and online narrative (Bedi, 2008). She has her own Facebook album (with nearly 1,500 "Likes") and is consistently portrayed as having donned a turban while on the battlefield (Facebook, n.d.). Despite little definitive historical knowledge about Mai Bhago, she has become the ''beau ideal'' of Sikh women, for some, the ultimate female warrior ideal; she remains that most legitimizing historical figure and model for contemporary turban-wearing Sikh women. |editor-last2=Myrvold |editor-first2=Kristina}}</ref> There is a belief that Mai Bhago wore a turban and male clothing when she went to battle.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Safir |first=Pritam Singh |title=The Tenth Master |publisher=Guru Nanak Foundation |year=1983 |pages=105–106}}</ref> The fictional Sikh female character ''Sundari'', created by [[Vir Singh (writer)|Bhai Vir Singh]], is also often depicted wearing a turban.<ref name=":4" /> Both Mai Bhago and Sundari have become the idealized woman for Sikh women.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> According to a 19th-century account by [[Giani Gian Singh]], a small number of [[Nihang]] women chose to wear turbans.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |title=Bhai Vir Singh (1872–1957): Religious and Literary Modernities in Colonial and Post-Colonial Indian Punjab |date=Apr 27, 2023 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |others=Edited by Anshu Malhotra, Anne Murphy |isbn=9781000867008 |quote=... [Vir Singh] would have been familiar with a small number of female Nihangs who donned turbans in the nineteenth century as chronicled by Giani Gian Singh ... Eleanor Nesbit too has gathered little-known descriptions, narratives and artistic renderings of Sikhs by Western women from the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries, including Emily Eden's 1838 watercolour of an Akali woman. The painting depicts "a mounted Akli-Nihang woman wearing a blue turban comparable in height to her husband's' (Nesbitt forthcoming).}}</ref> An 1838 watercolour by [[Emily Eden]] depicts a Nihang woman with a turban the same size as her husband's.<ref name=":3" /> The [[Rehat|Sikh Rehat Maryada]] does not mandate Sikh women to wear the typically-male turbans and leaves the choice up to the individual.<ref name=":4" /> According [[W. H. McLeod]], the symbolic representation and importance of turbans for Sikhs was a 20th century development, where as prior to then it was just seen as a practical headwear by Sikhs instead of something religiously symbolic of their faith.<ref name=":4" /> Bernard Cohn traces the development of the Sikh turban as a religiously symbolic article to the British colonial period, where the turban was promoted as a characteristically Sikh-identifying garment to distinguish them in the colonial military as part of their regulated uniform.<ref name=":4" />
[[File:Photograph of a congregation of the Panch Khalsa Diwan, established by Teja Singh Bhasaur.jpg|thumb|Photograph of a congregation of the Panch Khalsa Diwan, established by Teja Singh Bhasaur in 1893. Teja Singh Bhasauria was the first to mandate Sikh women wear a turban.<ref name=":2" />]]
During the Singh Sabha movement, there was a push to make Sikh women more dinstuishable from Hindu and Muslim women in-order to consolidate and standardize a separate Sikh identity.<ref name=":2" /> The Panch Khalsa Diwan, a radical faction on the fringes of the Singh Sabha movement led by Teja Singh Bhasaur, advocated for both of its male and female members to wear a turban.<ref name=":2" /> Women who refused to wear the turban were not allowed to become initiated by the Panch Khalsa Diwan.<ref name=":2" /> However, the faction eventually was sidelined by the dominant [[Tat Khalsa]] faction of the movement and disappeared.<ref name=":2" /> However, the Panch Khalsa Diwan's practice of making Sikh women wear a turban influenced Bhai Randhir Singh, founder of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha, who adopted the practice of Sikh women wearing a turban.<ref name=":2" /> Yogi Bhajan, founder of the 3HO sect, did not initially mandate women to wear a turban.<ref name=":2" /> According to Rami Katz (formerly Ram Das Kaur), the practice of 3HO women wearing a turban began when a small number of 3HO women, including her, started wearing turbans on their second trip to India in 1973 (the first having taken place in 1971 with Yogi Bhajan), and they felt "regal" and "good' wearing.<ref name=":2" /> When these women returned to America from India, they shared their experiences with others.<ref name=":2" />
[[File:Photograph of Bhai Randhir Singh seated and posed in 1946.jpg|thumb|Photograph of Bhai Randhir Singh seated and posed in 1946. Randhir Singh adopted the practice of Sikh women wearing turbans from the earlier Panch Khalsa Diwan of Teja Singh Bhasaur.<ref name=":2" />]]
[[Sikh Coalition|The Sikh Coalition]] states that whilst both Sikh men and women must not cut their hair, it is only required for Sikh men to wear a turban and doing-so is optional for women:<ref name=":2" />
{{Blockquote|text=Just like Sikh men, Sikh women are not supposed to cut their hair. In the ''Rahit Maryada'', it is explicitly written that Sikh men wear a turban. There is nothing explicitly written about women, except that the turban is optional|author=The Sikh Coalition|title=FAQ}}
Whilst the optionality of Sikh women wearing a turban or not went unquestioned, recently some women, especially [[Sikh feminism|feminist Sikhs]], are pushing against it and are asking why should the turban be mandated for men but not women.<ref name=":2" /> Some Sikh women who choose to wear the turban do so because they feel a sense of empowerment and respect from doing-so and as a means to achieve equality with men.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":1" /> Others opt to wear it as they feel it is a visual marker of being a Sikh.<ref name=":1" /> Women tying turbans are mostly younger, diasporic Sikhs living outside of their traditional homeland of Punjab.<ref name=":1" /> Meanwhile, in India the practice of women wearing turbans is practically non-existent.<ref name=":2" /> However, Sikh women who do wear the turban often face push-back from their families.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Rababan |first=Jasvir Kaur |date=14 April 2022 |title=Why Sikh women like me are embracing the power of the turban |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/sikh-women-turban-vaisakhi-celebration-b2057458.html |access-date=30 June 2025 |work=Independent}}</ref> Many Sikh women from North America in the teaching, consulting, and finance industries have taken-up wearing the turban as a symbol of gender equality.<ref name=":4" /> Sikh women who do wear a turban still wear a dupatta over their turban rather than a turban-alone.<ref name=":4" /> However, Sikh women wearing turbans may be misunderstood as being either "religious zealots" or "radical feminists" by others.<ref name=":2" /> Women who wear turbans may also be held to higher religious standards than their peers, and face pressure to live-up to others expectations as a result or face harsher criticism from their community.<ref name=":2" />

== Sects ==
The [[Akhand Kirtani Jatha]] enforces the turban on its female members.<ref name=":2" /> However, the AKJ remains on the margins of mainstream Sikhism but has a strong online-presence.<ref name=":2" /> The [[3HO]] sect (and its sister-organization, the Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere) practices women wearing white-turbans.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":2" /> Many 3HO members are [[Gora Sikh|Western converts to Sikhism]] who became Sikhs due to the teachings of Yogi Bhajan in the 1970's and 1980's.<ref name=":2" /> SikhNet, a popular Sikh website, is operated by the 3HO sect and features photographs of Sikh women donning turbans.<ref name=":2" /> However, beyond the AKJ and 3HO, the practice of Sikh women wearing turbans has entered mainstream Sikhism.<ref name=":2" />

== Scholarly views ==
[[File:Sikh bride 02.jpg|thumb|Photograph of a Sikh bride in red ''shalwar kameez'' and black turban with khanda, 2011]]
According to Cynthia Mahmood and Stacy Brady, some Sikh women are appropriating the traditional turban and its symbolism to "renegotiate their personal, cultural, and religious identity" and that the turban is being used by these women to "reflect changing ideas about gendered identities in Sikhism" to create a dialogue regarding representation, power-sharing, and sibling-hood (classically referred to as "brotherhood") within Sikhism.<ref name=":4" />

[[Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh]] has criticized the push for Sikh women to wear turbans and believes it should be a personal choice rather than an obligation.<ref name=":4" /> She states that the traditional dupatta is already sufficient in maintaining a woman's ''kesh''.<ref name=":4" /> Instead, she asks why men are not being asked to wear chunni instead and that there is a discarding of the traditional dupatta as if traditional femininity must be moved away from toward a masculine marker like the turban.<ref name=":4" /> However, she also states that women who opt to wear a turban should not be characterized as representing "Western feminism" by members of their own community, nor should they be viewed as representing "backwards fundamentalism" by outsiders.<ref name=":4" /> She concludes with "It is the deep-seated notions of male hegemony that have to disappear rather than women's hair beneath a turban."<ref name=":4" />

According to Pal Ahluwali, the global Sikh diaspora can be divided into broad categories: the "old" diaspora, born out of the age of colonial capital, and "new" diaspora, those who are part of the age of globalization.<ref name=":2" /> Doris R. Jakobsh connects women wearing turbans to the "new" diaspora that is "reformulating, recasting, redefining of the 'signs' of Sikh female devotionalism, spirituality and piety".<ref name=":2" /> She ties the increasing trend of diasporic Sikh women wearing turbans to the practice of veiling within Islam, which identifies a Muslim woman, as an analogous Sikh marker of a Sikh woman and the identity and status associated with it.<ref name=":2" /> Jakobsh states that the turban showcases the contrast between different bifocals, the Sikh from the non-Sikh, the untraditional to the traditional, the devoted from the undevoted, the "manly" or androgynous from the feminine.<ref name=":2" />
[[File:Sikh_woman.jpg|thumb|Photograph of a [[Khalsa|baptized]] Sikh woman wearing a turban under a ''dupatta'' and donning a ''[[kirpan]]'', December 2008]]
Women wearing turbans also developed as a means for Sikh women to be distinguished from other South Asian women in multicultural societies.<ref name=":2" /> Thus, it is a means of Sikhs further developing their own ethno-religious cultural identity in diverse environments.<ref name=":2" /> This is comparable to how after Operation Blue Star and the anti-Sikh riots in the 1980s, many [[Sikhism in the United Kingdom|Sikh women in the United Kingdom]] began to wear ''[[shalwar kameez]]'' instead of ''[[Sari|saris]]'', to distinguish themselves from Hindu women.<ref name=":2" /> This is an example of the formation of an in-group that is distinct from out-groups, with wearing a particular garment or clothing being a marker of being a fellow member of an in-group.<ref name=":2" /> Furthermore, many Sikh women who wear the traditional ''dupattas'' are mistaken for Muslim women wearing hijabs or niqabs, thus some Sikh women may opt to wear a turban as a further marker of them being a Sikh rather than being mistaken as a Muslim.<ref name=":2" />

== References ==
<references />
{{Sikhism}}

[[Category:Sikhism and women]]
[[Category:Turbans]]
[[Category:Women's clothing]]

Sikh women and turbans - Revision history

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