No Beard No Work: Afghanistan Govt Imposes Beard on Employees

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban has directed all government employees to wear a beard and adhere to a dress code or risk being fired.

This is the latest of several new restrictions imposed by the hard-line Islamist administration.

Local media sources reported that representatives from the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice were patrolling the entrances to government offices on Monday to check that employees complied with the new rules.

By the order, it is illegal for employees to shave their beards.

The sources, moreover, claimed workers were told to ensure they prayed at the correct times, in strict observance of Islamic tenets.

They were also told they would from now on be unable to enter offices and would eventually be fired if they did not comply with the mandatory dress code.

Earlier, the Taliban had banned women from taking flights without a male chaperone but failed to open girls’ schools as promised.

On Sunday, it ordered parks to be segregated by sex, with women allowed to enter three days a week and men the other four days, including the weekend, meaning even married couples and families cannot visit together.

The Taliban administration has drawn criticism at home and from Western governments for forcing its extreme interpretation of Islamic law on all Afghans.
Since taking power on August 15, 2021, the Taliban have sent a collective shudder among Afghans by reinstating the Ministry for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which had been abolished following the US occupation.

From 1996 to 2001, the ministry mandated that men grow beards — and the hardline Islamists prohibited music, smoking and other forms of entertainment.

The barbers say the new rules are making it hard for them to make a living as nobody turns up for beard trimming anymore.

The Taliban, which also refers to itself by the name of its state, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is an Islamic fundamentalist political movement in Afghanistan which ruled approximately three-quarters of the country from 1996 to 2001.