Turbans, hijabs in military, police

Harjit Sajjan was born in India on September 6, 1970, migrated to Canada with his family when he was five years old, and grew up in south Vancouver.

Sajjan joined the British Columbia Regiment in 1989 as a trooper and was commissioned in 1991.

He eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. During his career he was deployed overseas on four occasions: once to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and three times to Afghanistan.

He was wounded during his service in Bosnia and on his return to Canada began an 11-year career as an officer of the Vancouver Police Department. He ended his career there as a detective in the department’s gang crimes unit, specialising in drug trafficking and organised-crime investigations.

In 2006, he returned to the army and was deployed to Afghanistan where he served with the 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group, in Kandahar and as a liaison officer with the Afghan police.

His fluency in Punjabi allowed him to be understood by Urdu- speaking Afghans without translators, especially by village leaders who were invaluable to his intelligence gathering. After reporting his findings to Brigadier General David Fraser, Sajjan was tasked with helping the general plan aspects of Operation Medusa in Afghanistan.

When Sajjan returned to Vancouver, Fraser sent a letter to the police department praising Sajjan as “the best single Canadian intelligence asset in Afghanistan,” revealing that his work had saved “a multitude of coalition lives.” In 2009 Sajjan returned to Afghanistan for another tour of duty and was assigned as a special assistant to then Major-General James L Terry, the commander of American forces there.

In 2011, he was named commander of the British Columbia Regiment, becoming the first Sikh to command a Canadian Army reserve regiment.

In 2012 he was bestowed with the Meritorious Service Medal for diluting the Taliban’s influence in Kandahar Province. He is the recipient of several other awards including the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal and the Order of Military Merit.

Sajjan has served as an aide-decamp to the lieutenant governor of British Columbia.

On October 19, 2015, Harjit was elected as Member of Parliament for Vancouver South and on November 4, 2015, was appointed by Prime Minister Trudeau as Minister of National Defence.

Since 1990, Sikh policemen in Canada, the UK, Sweden and Norway and Sikh Customs officers in Canada have been permitted to retain their beards, long hair and turbans. Sikhs have served in the British Indian Army since the 1800s and in the US Army since World War I, but in 1981 Sikh soldiers in the US military were ordered to shave, cut their hair and doff their turbans.

Earlier this year US Army Captain Simratpal Singh became the first Sikh in 35 years to be exempted.

Lieutenant-Commander Wafa Dabbagh is the first Islamic woman in the Canadian Armed Forces to wear a hijab while on duty. Dabbagh was born in Egypt in 1962 and migrated to Canada in 1990. She holds BA and MBA degrees and is fluent in English, Arabic and French. In 1996, after training, she joined the Canadian Naval Reserves, rising to the rank of lieutenant-commander.

In Canada, female members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Toronto and Edmonton Police Services are permitted to wear the hijab while on duty.

So too are policewomen in the U K , S c o t - l a n d , Indonesia, I r a n , T u r - k e y and in seven US cities.