Tag: beard

  • Taliban threaten to fire govt employees for not keeping a beard

    The Taliban government in Afghanistan has threatened all government employees that they will be laid off if they do not comply with the new orders of keeping a compulsory beard and maintaining the dress code.

    Employees were instructed not to shave their beards and to wear loose trousers and shirts with a hat or turban. They were also instructed to make certain that they offer their five prayers on time.

    According to media reports, the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice were seen patrolling the entrance gate of government offices to inspect if everyone was following instructions on Monday. If any employee violated the order, he was not allowed to enter the office premises and would eventually get fired.

    Recently, the Taliban government barred women to travel alone on planes unless they were accompanied by their male guardian. If women have to travel abroad to study, they have to be accompanied by a male relative.

    Prior to this, the Taliban government also banned girls’ education above 6th grade. The announcement came only a few hours after they reopened for the first time in nearly seven months.

  • ‘Clearly I’m home’: Saqlain Mushtaq shares video with daughters putting clips on his beard

    ‘Clearly I’m home’: Saqlain Mushtaq shares video with daughters putting clips on his beard

    Interim head coach of the national cricket team, Saqlain Mushtaq, recently shared a video on his social media in which he can be seen sitting on a couch and his daughters are putting small clips on his beard and hair.

    Sharing the video on Twitter, the former Pakistan spinner wrote: “Clearly… I’m home after a long three months of cricket serving the great Pakistan.”

    The former Test off-spinner was appointed as the interim head coach after Misbah-ul-Haq and Waqar Younis resigned from their posts. He was appointed only for the New Zealand home series, which was cancelled after the visiting team left Pakistan before playing any match. The Black Caps backed out of its tour due to security concerns minutes before the first match was scheduled to start at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.

    Mushtaq was asked to continue in his role for the T20 Men’s World Cup as well as the series against Bangladesh and West Indies.

    Under Mushtaq’s tenure, Pakistan began an unbeaten run in the T20 World Cup till they were eliminated in the semi-final. Recently, the Men in Green also defeated Bangladesh on their home ground. While the national side also defeated West Indies with a clean sweep in the three-match T20I series in Karachi.

  • PML-N lawmaker in Punjab seeks action against men with fashionable beards, their barbers

    PML-N lawmaker in Punjab seeks action against men with fashionable beards, their barbers

    Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) MPA Rukhsana Kausar has tabled a resolution in the provincial house of Punjab seeking a ban on beard styling and action against men with fashionable beards as well as their barbers.

    According to Kausar’s resolution, beard is the sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and legislation to decide strict action against those who shape beards in fashionable styles is needed.

    The resolution contends that any kind of styling of the beard is a “grave sin”, and it is an “insult to the beard”. The resolution calls for strict action against those “who make fun of beard”.

    “When I see youngsters on the streets and in the markets with different designs of beard in the name of fashion, I feel hurt, because that is against the teachings of Islam,” she told a private media outlet.

    Federal Minister for Science & Technology Fawad Chaudhry has also reacted to the resolution in the Punjab Assembly.

    This is not the first time that beard designing has been a priority of the ruling elite as barbers have time and again been “strictly barred” from styling customers’ beards in different shapes or clipping them into designs in areas of rural Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan.

    KP police in Shabqadar tehsil of Charsadda had in 2019 detained at least four barbers for styling customers’ beards during an unofficial ban imposed by a local traders’ union that had termed such beards “un-Islamic”.