Taliban ban Helmand barbers from trimming beards

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The order, distributed on social networks, also contains a request not to play music or hymns on the premises of hairdressing salons…reports Asian Lite News

The Taliban have banned hairdressers in Afghanistan’s Helmand province from shaving or trimming beards, a media report said.

“The Taliban have banned stylish hairstyles and shaving beards in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan,” The Frontier Post reported citing the Taliban’s letter.

The publication further stated that officials from the Ministry of Islamic Orientation, at a meeting with representatives of men’s hairdressing salons in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, advised against styling hair and shaving beards.

The order, distributed on social networks, also contains a request not to play music or hymns on the premises of hairdressing salons, The Frontier Post reported.

Meanwhile, the Taliban is re-imposing repressive laws and retrograde policies. They are imposing laws that defined its 1996-2001 rule when they enforced their version of Islamic Sharia law.

Amid reports of large-scale human rights violations by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the outfit earlier had put on public display the bodies of four people who were killed after they allegedly carried out a kidnapping in the western city of Herat.

It is been over a month since the Taliban captured Kabul after an aggressive and rapid advance against Afghanistan government forces amid the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from the country.

The country plunged into crisis last month after Kabul fell to the Taliban and the democratically elected government of former president Ashraf Ghani collapsed.

Thousands flee to Iran

Since the Taliban took over power in Afghanistan, thousands of Afghani people have fled to its neighbouring country, Iran, as uncertainty grows in the troubled country, according to media reports.

A former Afghan policeman who says he is out of work under the new Taliban government is one of the thousands of Afghans who has fled over the border to Iran in recent weeks, Voice of America (VOA) reported.

Abdul Ahad, a 22-year-old former officer, told VOA that he is leaving the country because he “has no hope for a future” in Afghanistan.

“I lost my job, and I am forced to leave (Afghanistan) searching for a job so I can feed my family,” said Ahad, who worked for four years as a policeman in western Farah province. He said, “I do not know what I will be doing in Iran, but at least I will be able to find a job there, earn some money and send it back to my family.”

Multiple sources and eyewitnesses in the border city of Zaranj, the capital of southwestern Nimruz province, have confirmed to VOA that after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, thousands of Afghans, fearing economic hardships and political persecution under the Taliban, are fleeing over the border to Iran.

Ahad added that many of his former colleagues in the Afghan security forces had already left for Iran. “Some left because of economic problems, but others fled fearing the Taliban’s reprisal,” he said.

It is been over a month when the Taliban captured Kabul after an aggressive and rapid advance against Afghanistan government forces amid the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from the country.

The country plunged into crisis last month after Kabul fell to the Taliban and the democratically elected government of former president Ashraf Ghani collapsed.

Earlier, the Taliban announced a “general amnesty” for all Afghan government officials and urged them to return to work, including women corresponding with Sharia law.

But, the older generations remember the ultraconservative Islamic regime that saw regular stoning, amputations and public executions during Taliban rule before the US-led invasion that followed the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The Taliban have ruled in accordance with a harsh interpretation of Islamic law and though the outfit has sought to project greater moderation in recent years, many Afghans remain sceptical.

Also, appointing hardliners in its new government who oversaw the 20-year fight against the US-led military coalition, with no women included shows what lies in store for the Afghan women. (ANI)

ALSO READ: Taliban hang bodies in public as grim warning

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