NEW YORK: With just days remaining in end of the Obama administration, the US military has issued new guidelines for religious accommodations and dress.
The guidelines which as effective immediately, brigade-level commanders will be able to grant accommodations to servicemen and women who wear beards, turbans, or hijabs for religious reasons—the three most common requests for waivers to current guidelines on grooming and dress, according to a letter from the Secretary of the Army, Eric Fanning.
The new guidelines also revise hairstyle standards for female soldiers: They can now wear dreadlocks, cornrows, or twists, provided they’re relatively small, uniform, neat, and tied off inconspicuously, and they don’t have to request an accommodation to do so.
Till now Sikh NY police were allowed to wear only a small head covering, the patka, under their regulation hats or caps.
