FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 21, 2015
Ek Ong Kaar Kaur Khalsa
Phone: (505) 614-5905
Email: [email protected]
The Inspiration Behind SikhNet’s Upcoming Animation KAUR
On Tuesday, March 3rd, in celebration of International Women’s Day, SikhNet.com will launch a free online short animated movie titled KAUR. #makeithappen. #kaurpower. kaur.sikhnet.com.
Recently, Gurumustuk Singh Khalsa, Founder and CTO of SikhNet.com, and Ek Ong Kaar Kaur Khalsa, Program Director for SikhNet.com, talked about the inspiration behind the upcoming animated film. You can watch this video to see the entire interview.
“Women are given the name ‘Kaur’, which means ‘Princess.’ But what does that mean for a Sikh woman to be a princess?” asked Gurumustuk Singh. “I was watching my daughter mimic princesses she sees, and I realized we don’t really have a very clear identity for Sikh women. I needed some things for her to visually relate to and what it is for a woman to be a Sikh.”
“How do you inspire young girls to be a conscious princess, a spiritual princess, a Khalsa princess, instead of a Disney princess?” asked Ek Ong Kaar Kaur. “That’s where we got back to Mai Bhago. Mai Bhago has this amazing story. She empowered herself. She grew up on Dharmic principles. She meditated, learned martial arts and really fought for the life that she loved – this life that Guru Gobind Singh created of equality, freedom and self empowerment. She represented all those qualities.”
KAUR tells the story of a young Sikh girl, Saibhang Kaur, who loves science but feels the social pressure that “girls don’t belong in science club.” Not sure what to do about her dreams, Saibhang Kaur thinks about giving up. But when Saibhang’s grandmother tells her the true story of the 18th century Sikh warrior princess Mai Bhago, Saibhang discovers her courage.
The online global response to the trailer for KAUR has been phenomenal. People from around the world have volunteered to translate the script for KAUR into their native languages, so there would be subtitles for the movie when it is released on March 3rd. Currently, subtitles for KAUR include Punjabi, Hindi, Spanish, German, Italian, Finnish, Chinese and Portuguese.
KAUR will launch March 3, 2015 at 7 am Mountain Standard Time. Visit kaur.sikhnet.com for more information.