By Asia Samachar Team | NEW ZEALAND |
A New Zealand club has once again denied entry to a turban-wearing Sikh on the ground that it violated the club’s ban on headwear.
An effort to explain the difference between a turban and a hat fell on deaf ears as the doorman stood his ground and denied the Sikh entry into the club.
Similar incidents have been reported at Manurewa Cosmopolitan Club (MCC) in 2009 and 2015.
“I understand why you have the rules to control the dress, a turban is a formal part of every dress code,” Jagdip Singh Bajwa told TVNZ1’s Breakfast show on Monday (9 Dec 2019). “People are going to the Queen wearing a turban, Parliament… everywhere.”
Jagdip said the doorman agreed to make an exception if they could produce a medical certificate.
Jagdip and Inderjit went along with their fitness coach and other fitness club members for dinner at MCC. The coach and fellow fitness members, who are not Sikhs, decided to go elsewhere when they failed to convince the MCC doorman to allow Jagdip and Inderjit in.
In the 2009 incident, the Sikh man waw being honoured for his service to the elderly while the 2015 incident involved a lunch for local real estate agents.
Gurpreet Singh, who then worked at Ray White Papatoetoe, indicated that he was taking his complaint about religious discrimination to the Human Rights Commission.
In 2015, the club members voted to uphold the turban ban, according to media reports.
RELATED STORY:
Sikh barred from NZ club over turban (Asia Samachar, 18 June 2015)
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