In different parts of the planet there is a push - perhaps a rush - to strip women and men of cultural and religious symbols which leaves on wondering why anyone feels this is necessary. We live in a multicultural, inter-dependent world. so what's the issue and why this issue.
With that question in mind, I appreciated these insights from a Canadian writer V. R. Sasson:
"Throughout the religious world, the question of what one wears (or does not wear) on one’s head reflects who one is. It is how people identify themselves religiously. The head is the highest point of the body, the part we share with the sky and that reaches for the stars. In some communities, it is covered as an expression of humility. In others, it is uncovered to demonstrate communalism. In Buddhism, it is shaved to manifest separation from worldly life, but Hindu renunciants grow their hair into dreadlocks to say the same thing. Some Jain monastics will literally pluck individual hairs from their head.
How a person wears their hair and whether they cover it or not speaks volumes. The fact that secular culture permits almost any hairstyle at this point (colored, shaved, or even having the skull tattooed) is a statement too: a declaration that seculars are not bound by limitation—gendered, religious, or otherwise. Every one of us speaks to our society with our hairstyles, head coverings, or lack thereof.
I don’t mean to simplify these issues, but alarm bells are ringing. History has been down this road before. We have tried to make a diverse community unified (communist China immediately comes to mind) just as we have tried to strip outsiders of their differences. We have forced monks to disrobe (Tibet) and Muslims to shave their beards (Turkey). We have tried repeatedly to make our communities ring with one voice and it never works."
(read the full article here: www.buddhistdoor.net)
With that question in mind, I appreciated these insights from a Canadian writer V. R. Sasson:
"Throughout the religious world, the question of what one wears (or does not wear) on one’s head reflects who one is. It is how people identify themselves religiously. The head is the highest point of the body, the part we share with the sky and that reaches for the stars. In some communities, it is covered as an expression of humility. In others, it is uncovered to demonstrate communalism. In Buddhism, it is shaved to manifest separation from worldly life, but Hindu renunciants grow their hair into dreadlocks to say the same thing. Some Jain monastics will literally pluck individual hairs from their head.
How a person wears their hair and whether they cover it or not speaks volumes. The fact that secular culture permits almost any hairstyle at this point (colored, shaved, or even having the skull tattooed) is a statement too: a declaration that seculars are not bound by limitation—gendered, religious, or otherwise. Every one of us speaks to our society with our hairstyles, head coverings, or lack thereof.
I don’t mean to simplify these issues, but alarm bells are ringing. History has been down this road before. We have tried to make a diverse community unified (communist China immediately comes to mind) just as we have tried to strip outsiders of their differences. We have forced monks to disrobe (Tibet) and Muslims to shave their beards (Turkey). We have tried repeatedly to make our communities ring with one voice and it never works."
(read the full article here: www.buddhistdoor.net)
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