siobhan-dillon:

Huffington Post Religion is proud to announce that our 2012 Person Of The Year is Balpreet Kaur.

Ms. Kaur became an internet sensation when a photo of her standing in a line was taken by an editor at Reddit (a ‘Redditor) who posted it online under the subject heading ‘funny,’ apparently based on her unique appearance.

Balpreet Kaur responded to the intentional denigration by explaining who she was, why she looked the way she does, and the tenets of her Sikh faith with a remarkable generosity of spirit:

“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… When I die, no one is going to remember what I looked like, heck, my kids will forget my voice, and slowly, all physical memory will fade away,” Kaur wrote. “However, my impact and legacy will remain: and, by not focusing on the physical beauty, I have time to cultivate those inner virtues and hopefully, focus my life on creating change and progress for this world in any way I can.“