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Silent
crisis within a community
Jasmeet Sidhu
 Although
I
often have struggled with my cultural identity in this patchwork
nation of
Canada, I have always retained a sense of pride and devotion to my
religion, Sikhism. The Sikh community's integral contribution to
Canadian society in business, politics and philanthropy has helped
me to maintain this unbroken connection.
As
an ardent feminist as well, I have always been especially proud of
the fact that Sikhism, a religion born in patriarchal 15th-century
India, holds gender equality as one of its core tenets and
explicitly advocates respect for women as equals. But my pride in my
religion has not been an unwavering one, especially when actions in
the community are completely antithetical to what the religion
advocates, and what I believe in as a person.
One of these is the seriousness of physical and emotional abuse of
women in the Punjabi-Sikh community, and the accompanying
complacency surrounding the topic in the community at large.
The Punjabi Community Health Centre (PCHC), an advocacy group based
in Peel Region, has called violence against women "the most silent
kept secret within the Sikh community" and described the role of the
Sikh community in confronting the problem and aiding abused women as
"pathetic." With a religion whose holy scriptures written more than
500 years ago explicitly challenged the inferiority of women and
whose founders elevated and emphasized women's social status to that
of equals, why then, in a research study conducted by the PCHC, is
wife abuse in the Sikh community considered a serious problem by 75
per cent of the Sikhs surveyed?
Wally Oppal,
British Columbia's
attorney- general and a Sikh, has even called domestic violence a
"cancer" in the community.
His comments were made after a string of Sikh women were murdered,
allegedly by their husbands, in the
Vancouver area in 2007. After such blunt claims, Oppal was accused
by some in the community as being a traitor to his ethnicity and
culture. On top of this troubling accusation of "treachery" and the
obvious denial within the community, the harrowing possibility
exists that gender-based oppression is not just limited to women in
intimate partner relationships, but to unborn Sikh daughters as
well.
While the nationwide average according to Statistics Canada is 105
male births to every 100 female births, a 2003 study by the
Institute of Marriage and Family Canada found that in Surrey, B.C. –
populated heavily by Sikh Canadian families – there were109 boys to
every 100 girls.
There is no conclusive public data that would prove these numbers
were the result of sex-selective abortions. However, the statistics
are deeply troubling in light of allegations last year that several
Punjabi Canadian newspapers (including a Mississauga-based one) were
carrying advertisements by ultrasound clinics promoting female
foeticide. The allegations, made by the head of a B.C.-based
immigrant society, were countered by one of the ultrasound clinics
that claimed there was no proof regarding how couples were using
ultrasound data.
The gap between the gender equality explicitly called for in Sikhism
and its practice is deeply disturbing, though in some ways, not
surprising. Indeed, other religions also have been labelled as
racist or sexist when in reality only a chosen few engage in these
behaviours and there is absolutely nothing within the faith that
promotes or supports such attitudes or actions.
Regardless of whether violence against women in the Sikh community
is the result of a deeply rooted chauvinism in Punjabi culture or
other reasons, what is more disconcerting is the complacency of
Sikhs in terms of understanding and tackling the issue.
By
publicly acknowledging what now are regarded as individual or
private matters, by engaging Sikh men and challenging the still very
male-dominated atmosphere of Sikh temples by including more women in
leadership roles, a sense of community consciousness can emerge that
will not tolerate the physical and emotional abuse of Sikh women.
In
the more than 100 years since Sikhs first immigrated to Canada, they
have proven to be a resourceful, dynamic and engaged religious
community that has tackled issues of external prejudice and
religious rights in Canada. However, the same level of will and
leadership must be shown to end one of the most serious yet least
acknowledged problems within the Sikh community.
Jasmeet Sidhu is a university student. This article appears courtesy
The Star
28
May,
2008
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