Thread by @pklemon

Hey #Sikh Twitter, I’m not in that fold of the internet but, this is for you. This may be an unpopular opinion but, I genuinely would appreciate insight and thoughts from your experiences on this.

I think as a community we are erasing the Amritdhari woman.

It often feels like traditional Sikh spaces are open for Amritdhari Singhs and then new alternative Sikh spaces are for non-Amritdhari Sikh women.
The space for Amritdhari Kaurs is ... nonexistent?

Social media pages and blogs for Kaurs highlight non-Amritdhari Sikh women, panels adding a Sikh woman will often have non-Amritdhari women, Sikh families often have sons of Amritdhari Singhs and daughters of non-Amritdhari Sikh women.

It feels like we are really nailing in the concept that Sikhi in all its aspects is for men. And then there is this subset for females.

I also don’t understand how “Singh” often esp by adulthood denotes an Amritdhari man but Kaur is this ubiquitous word that anyone can use.

I am left feeling that this discrepancy is rooted in how male-centric we have allowed our spaces to become. Perhaps the Amritdhari woman feels like a threat. Singhs can’t abuse spiritual privilege against them in the same ways like routine arbitrary rehit rules?

This may feel like an attack on women, who are already marginalized in these spaces. I apologize for that.

I’m not sure how I could express this sentiment better, I’m open to hearing that.

I guess I just feel lost as to where and when we will make space for the Kaur.