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Sacked woman sues IRS for kirpan ban

Houston: An Indian-American Sikh woman has sued the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for allegedly violating her religious freedom by prohibiting her from wearing the kirpan, a small ceremonial knife, to her job as a revenue agent.

Kawaljeet Kaur Tagore, who worked as revenue agent at the Mickey Leland Federal Building in downtown Houston, sued her employer in the Houston Federal Court on Tuesday with the help of the Sikh Coalition, the DC-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and Houston civil rights attorney Scott Newar.

Ms. Tagore, 35, has filed the discrimination case after she was told in July 2006 that she could not wear her kirpan.

“There’s never been any allegation that she had somehow taken the kirpan and used it as a weapon— that’s not what its purpose is,” Mr. Newar said.

“It’s a symbolic religious article that Sikhs have carried for centuries. It’s like a Cross, it’s like a Star of David, it’s like any other religious ornament. It just happens to have a blade.”

IRS spokeswoman Lea Crusberg, however, declined to comment on the pending litigation. In July 2006, Ms. Tagore was dismissed she refused to remove her kirpan.

“Sikhs around the world wear their kirpans while serving as government officials. Bureaucratic short-sightedness and ignorance of the Sikh religion are no reason to put a unique ban on kirpans in Houston,” said Eric Rassbach, national litigation director at the Becket Fund.

The lawsuit claims that the termination of the services of Ms. Tagore violates both the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) and Title VII religious employment discrimination rules..— PTI

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