For clarification, you are not being discriminated against, as you allude to in your letter. ... You are being treated the same as the other inmates in [California Men's Colony]. You may have a beard, but you must keep it trimmed to no more than one-half inch in length. There is no provision in the [California Code of Regulations], Title 15 for the Warden to exempt the grooming standards.

Members of the Sikh religion have also contested state prohibitions of ceremonial religious dress [JURIST news archives], including headscarves, turbans and daggers. In February 2010, a UK judge criticized Britain's ban on Sikhs wearing their ceremonial dagger [JURIST report] in public places. In 2007, the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) revised security procedures relating to headwear, after Sikhs criticized [JURIST reports] the potential for religious profiling. In 2006, the Supreme Court of Canada overturned [JURIST report] a Quebec school board's ban on carrying Sikh ceremonial daggers at school, ruling that it infringed students' religious freedom under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In 2006, the French Conseil d'Etat held [JURIST report] that Sikhs have to remove their turbans to be photographed for driver's licenses as a matter of public security.