As readers may be aware, the Manurewa Cosmopolitan Club has a ban on headwear of any sort in its dining area. This has upset the local Sikh community whose men – required, as they are, to wear turbans at all times – are effectively barred entrance. Legal action is being threatened by the local Sikh community, supported by the lawyer who is president of the Auckland Council for Civil Liberties claims that this action breaches New Zealand's Human Rights Act.
I hope that the rule stays in place. I don't imagine that I'd support it if I were a club member, but a private club should be allowed to implement whatever rules it wants.
The club was previously in the headlines for a related issue. Last year, a Muslim student was not allowed to wear a burqa while eating there. There was a mediation process involving the Human Rights Commission, the result of which was that the club agreed to hold a vote on the the headwear issue. The members endorsed the action with a 75% majority.
I don't know exactly what the motivations of the club's members were when they voted as they did. But when I was raised I was sometimes told that it is rude to wearheadwear indoors, especially when eating, and I imagine that a large number of the members were brought up the same way. This is obviously diametrically opposed to Sikh customs, and one culture is going to be disappointed with the final result, whatever that may be. Either Sikhs will be disappointed at being denied entrance, or the club's members will be disappointed that one part of their cultural traditions is being ignored. What I don't understand is why the Sikh community and well-meaning civil rights lawyers feel that that culture has to be the one that the vast majority of the club's members belong to, rather then the culture that only a small minority of potential members and guests belong to.
It also needs to remembered that this is a private organisation, not a public one. No Government institution would be justified in enforcing this sort of rule – we are all taxpayers and so all cultures need to be included. But private clubs can do as they please.
I have commented previously that white New Zealanders seem to feel that we belong to some sort of a generic non-culture, rather than having a culture of our own – as, for example, by taking great care to pronounce Maori words correctly but very little to pronounce English words correctly. I suspect that many of those who are opposed to the club's actions belong to this camp. I also suspect that any clubs that followed rules that opposed customs expected in New Zealand would not have the same trouble, and that any locals who complained would be told of the importance of the rule to the other culture, and asked why they didn't just take their business elsewhere.
There is, of course, the possibility that the vote went the way it did because the club's members don't like being told what to do by a Government organisation. Be that as it may, and whatever the rationale involved, the club should be allowed to act as it likes.