Balpreet Kaur Unfazed By Cruel Taunts, Not Ashamed Of Facial Hair Picture

Balpreet Kaur was supposed to be the victim of a cruel internet joke, only the aspiring neurosurgeon refused to play along.

As The Daily Mail reported, a Reddit user saw the Ohio State University waiting in line and snapped a picture, uploading it to the site. The man, who snapped the picture without her consent, placed it in the ‘funny’ category with the tagline “im (sic) not sure what to conclude from this.”

The reason is that Balpreet Kaur sports visible facial hair, the byproduct of her Sikh faith. One of the tenets of the faith is known as Kesh, which asks members to allow their hair to grow naturally without being cut.

Balpreet Kaur learned of the picture and pointed out that she’s perfectly happy with her appearance.

“‘I’m not embarrassed or even humiliated by the attention [negative and positve] that this picture is getting because, it’s who I am,” she said. “Yes, I’m a baptized Sikh woman with facial hair. Yes, I realize that my gender is often confused and I look different than most women.

‘However, baptized Sikhs believe in the sacredness of this body – it is a gift that has been given to us by the Divine Being [which is genderless, actually] and, must keep it intact as a submission to the divine will.”

Balpreet Kaur also refused to condemn the person who posted the photo, even though it was clearly meant to make fun of her appearance, The Indo Asian News Service reported.

In fact, the post generated huge amounts of support for Kaur.

User daybird wrote:

“I’m so glad you posted; you are the epitome of what I love about humanity. I support your ways, and I admire your strength. :)”