New York, Nov 9(ANI): A 12-year-old US-based Indian girl Suzannah Pabla is in trouble over her decision to get her nose pierced, which she saw as a way to connect with her roots in India. Her school, however, sees it as a dress-code violation worthy of suspension.

Suzannah, who was born in Bountiful, Utah, was briefly suspended last month from her school for violating a body-piercing ban.

“I wanted to feel more closer to my family in India because I really love my family,” The Star quoted Suzannah, as saying.

While her mother Shirley Pabla said: “I just thought it would be OK to let her embrace her heritage and her culture. I didn’t know it would be such a big deal.”

School officials said nose piercing was an Indian cultural choice, not a religious requirement.

They have since compromised and allowed Suzannah to wear a clear, unobtrusive stud in her nose.

“It’s true that the nose ring is mainly a cultural thing for most Indians. Even if it is just culture, culture matters. And her right to express or explore it seems to me at least as important as her right to express her religious identity,” said Amardeep Singh, an Indian raised in the US.

Singh further said that people frequently ask him why he wears a turban.

“Sometimes it can be a burden to explain that. Most people presume I’m an immigrant, a foreigner. As a child of immigrants, you often don’t feel fully American. The presumption is that you are somehow foreign to a core American identity. You always feel a little bit of an outsider, even in your own country,” he added. (ANI)