No Beards, No Work – Taliban Warns Government Employees

Government employees who do not wear beards and adhere to strict dress code now risk being fired from service by the Afghanistan’s ruling administration.

Three insider sources told Reuters that the development is the latest of several new restrictions imposed by the hard-line authorities in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

The sources said representatives from the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice now patrol the entrances to government offices to check that employees were in compliance with the new rules.

Reports said employees have been instructed against shaving their beards and must now wear local clothing consisting of a long, loose top and trousers, and a hat or turban, adding that workers were warned they would no longer be allowed entry into offices and may eventually be fired if they did not meet the dress code.

Though a spokesman for the public morality ministry did not respond to a request for comment by Reuters, two competent sources said workers have also been directed to ensure they pray at the correct times.

In one of their emerging policy trends, the Taliban has banned women from taking flights without a male chaperone, even as they failed to open girls’ schools as earlier 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 hard-line interpretation of Islamic law on all Afghans.

The new leadership had promised to respect everyone’s rights in line with Islamic law and Afghan customs and that they have changed since their 1996-2001 rules, when they barred women from leaving the house without a male relative and forced men to grow beards.

Meanwhile, the Talibans’ u-turn on reopening girls’ schools led to protests from the international community, including the United States, which pulled out of planned meetings with Taliban officials in Qatar, to discuss key economic issues.

At present, the landlocked country, located at the crossroads of Central and South Asia, needs Western countries to lift sanctions that are crippling the Afghan economy. – With Reuters/NAN reports