Sikh Student Detained on Campus Speaks to Lack of Religious and Diversity Training at Schools

Articles of Sikh faith are criminalized on college campuses, but Sikh students are fighting back.
Sikhs prepare to march in the annual NYC Sikh Day Parade April 25 2009
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On September 22, Amaan Warraich, a Sikh student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte was detained for carrying a knife around campus. In a video of the incident he shared on Twitter, he says campus police accused him of “resisting” detention. It turns out the object Warraich was carrying was a Kirpan.

For Sikhs, the Kirpan is one of the five Sikh articles of faith, which is carried by individuals who have gone through the Amrit Sanskar religious initiation ceremony. It looks similar to a knife, but is sheathed and worn with a strap across the individual’s body. But the Kirpan represents so much more than just a knife; it represents a “Sikh’s solemn duty to protect the weak and promote justice for all.” It is not worn as an accessory or a piece of jewelry, but instead carried because one of the 10 gurus, Guru Gobind Singh Ji, introduced it as a symbol of Sikhism in 1699. Each one of the five Sikh articles, the Five Ks, embody the rich religious history of Sikhs.

As Sikhs, we are taught to help others and advocate for equality and justice throughout all communities. Yet, most Americans don’t even know who we are. Responses to the UNC Charlotte student’s detention ranged from confusion about what a Kirpan is to condemnation of the university for infringing on religious freedom.

In a statement to Teen Vogue, a UNC Charlotte spokesperson said, “The University has never pursued disciplinary action against any student for carrying a kirpan.” The spokesperson pointed to two public statements about the incident from UNC Charlotte chancellor Sharon Gaber on the school’s website. “State law and University policy prohibit the possession of a knife or other edged instruments on campus, but we will use this as a learning opportunity by engaging in constructive dialogue with Sikh students and employees,” the first statement about the incident reads. The chancellor followed up with another statement about the school’s education and outreach initiatives around the issue, disclosing that the weapons on campus policy will be updated to accommodate “the religious faith of our employees and students.”

Teen Vogue also reached out to UNC Charlotte’s campus police department for comment.

Being a part of the Sikh faith, a resident of North Carolina, and a member of the Sikh Gurudwara of North Carolina, I can speak to the significance of this incident and why it’s time people outside of our culture understand it as well. Seeing that video circulate on social media reminded me of the atrocious hate crimes against Asian Americans in response to the 9/11 attacks and COVID — that are still happening to this day. Between March 2020 and March 2022, more than 11,400 incidents targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were reported to the nonprofit organization Stop AAPI Hate

The UNC Charlotte student, Amaan Warraich, was not interested in an interview after all the media attention on his arrest. But his brother, Arfan Warraich, a student at North Carolina State University, had a similar experience with a Kirpan while visiting the UNC Charlotte campus. Arfan agreed to join me via Zoom to help clear the confusion surrounding the Kirpan and Sikh practices.

Editor’s note: This conversation has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

Teen Vogue: What were your and your family's first reactions to hearing about your brother’s arrest?

Arfan Warraich: My initial reaction was shock, but I wasn’t really surprised since that same exact situation had happened to me [when I visited my brother on campus]. So I didn't expect it to happen again with him, only because we had already discussed what the Kirpan was with university police [during a similar incident two years ago], and I had expected [campus police] to be more informed on it. I think my family was a little more concerned…with him being a brown man wearing a turban; aside from just the Kirpan, I think that's just genuinely a concern that I, my brother, and probably many other Sikh men have on a regular basis.

TV: You said a similar incident happened to you at UNC Charlotte before your brother’s experience. Can you describe the situation?

AW: This was around two years ago, because it was my sophomore year. My friend and I went to UNC Charlotte to visit my brother, who was in class. We were in the student union and stopped at Starbucks to pick up coffee. Then, some police officers came in and took me out [of the coffee shop, which is] right in the middle of the student union, and said that somebody reported that I was wearing a knife and they needed to confiscate it. I was genuinely surprised as to how anybody could have possibly known that because my Kirpan was underneath my clothes and it wasn't visible. 

One thing that really bothered me was they dragged me out by my Kirpan. They [could’ve] handled that in a more decent manner [because] nobody was resisting anything. There was no need for excessive disrespect. I let them know there's other Sikh students here who also wear a Kirpan and it's never been an issue. They were looking at me like I was making it up…and that I was some crazy person who had some sort of fringe belief. 

After [the police] confiscated my Kirpan, I went to the Office of Diversity and let them know what had happened. They informed [me] that they would implement more diversity training and agreed that the police should be more conscious of people's faiths and try to be more tactful. I told them, “You need to update your weapons policy because there are [other] Sikh students at this university.” (The UNC spokesperson did not share additional comments on these allegations.)

TV: Do universities have enough diversity and religious training to stop something like this from happening again?

AW: I think in [terms of] more popular faiths, they probably do. But in terms of Sikhi and a lot of other minority faiths on university campuses, I don't think so.

TV: The video your brother shared on Twitter got over 24,000 retweets. With that attention, did any other students or organizations call for action?

AW: There was actually a lot of uproar. I couldn't go on Instagram or any social media platform without seeing it on everyone's story. In terms of organizations, there was United Sikhs, there was the World Sikh Organization (WSO), [and the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund] SALDEF.… It even went so far as to get acknowledgement from leading Sikh organizations in India, like the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. So it was crazy how this one incident at a university in North Carolina had such an international uproar. 

One thing I noticed, though, was that there was a lot of support from not only the Sikh community but other communities as well, especially other minorities. A lot of different minority communities were getting involved — saying that similar experiences have happened; we don't feel like we're being represented or included.

TV: What did you accomplish in your work with the Kirpan and talking to North Carolina State as an executive of the Sikh student association, NC State Nirvair?

AW: After being reported a few times [for carrying the Kirpan on my own campus], the Office of Diversity contacted me. I [met with them and] informed them on what Sikhi is, what our practice of carrying the Five Ks was, and what the Kirpan was. They were actually willing to listen and were genuinely interested, taking notes, asking questions, and asking for resources on where they could learn more. 

Honestly, that was really proactive. But what they ended up deciding was, “Hey, you're allowed to wear your Kirpan, but it has to meet these [certain] requirements.” I think it was a little bit insufficient, that it didn't reach as far as it could have, and I think that's been something we've been trying to focus on a little more with our [Sikh Student Association].

TV: Why do some Sikhs wear all Five Ks while others only wear a couple?

AW: This is a conversation that I've been having a lot in the last few weeks. I think it's an important distinction to make that not every Sikh follows Sikhi the same way. Just as in any other faith, you can't expect every person to have this monolithic, homogeneous identity. 

The other thing is that the Five Ks aren't necessarily mandated for every Sikh. Not every Sikh is expected to be a part of the Khalsa, which is a specific, more martial order of Sikhi — and that's just one dimension of Sikhi. You go to India and you can see there's even more variation in Sikhi than there is over here. There will be people who practice more, and they'll be people who practice less.

TV: In light of your brother’s incident and others involving Sikhs practicing their religion, do you have any closing thoughts on how Sikhs are treated in the US?

AW*:* There's a tendency in the Sikh community and South Asian communities as a whole to kind of brush [these incidents] under the rug and not talk about [them]. Like that string of attacks against elderly Sikhs in Richmond Hill [in Brooklyn], I think they are definitely more common than what the media likes to highlight. 

I don't think I know one Sikh who's my age, living in the US, that hasn't gone through something similar. The first thing that comes to mind is [being in] airports, and this ties back into the post-9/11 policy changes. [Another] big one that kind of took me by surprise was last year when my roommate and I were walking on Hillsborough Street. It was 8 or 9 p.m., and we were walking back when a pickup truck full of white college students decided to shout racial slurs at us. Things like, “Oh, go back to your country” or “You’re not welcome here,” and they started throwing eggs at us. 

This had never happened in my three years at university, but then we realized we were walking around on [the anniversary of] 9/11. Then it became obvious. So I think as a minority in the US, as a minority in India, and especially as a minority in Pakistan, you develop this resilience to a lot of the discrimination.

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