Islamist Barber-ism in Iran
April 30, 2007, 3:05 pm |
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By Andrew L. Jaffee
10 lashes… for a good couf, using hair gel, and wearing a nice necktie? Talk about alienating a nation’s youth: Iran’s Il Duce Ahmadinejad banned Western music in December 2005; his thought police started shutting down Internet bloggers; the storm-troopers banned access to the BBC’s website; etc. Now, very significantly, the mullahs are going after barbers who dare to create hair styles which could be considered un-Islamic (whatever that is).
From Gulfnews:
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Iranian police have warned barbers against offering Western-style hair cuts or plucking the eyebrows of their male customers, Iranian media said on Sunday.
The report by a reformist daily, later confirmed by an Iranian news agency, appeared to be another sign of the authorities cracking down on clothing and other fashion deemed to be against Islamic values.
“Western hair styles … have been banned,” the newspaper Etemad said in a front-page headline.
It came a week after police launched a crackdown against the growing numbers of young women testing the limits of the law with shorter, brighter and skimpier clothing ahead of the summer months. …
Violators can receive lashes, fines and imprisonment. The student news agency, ISNA, quoted a police statement as saying: “In an official order to barber shops, they have been warned to avoid using Western hair styles and doing men’s eyebrows.” …
Related: Iran, Islam, War Against Islamo-fascism
May 4th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
[...] There is a clause in H.R. 1592 which seems to guarantee free speech (below), but I can only wonder if the lawyers will be able to go to town with legalisms, silencing critics of yoga. What will be next, the silencing of the blogsphere, as in current-day Iran? …Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by the free speech or free exercise clauses of, the First Amendment to the Constitution. [...]
August 26th, 2007 at 12:50 am
Its not “western” haircuts they are cracking down on, just really weird strange haircuts. The hairstyles they are cracking down on would be considered very strange in Europe and the states too. Here watch this video to see examples http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eeb0BMutOec
August 26th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Ah, er, we don’t have hair cut police in the West. We call it “freedom of expression.” It seems that you do not understand the concept. “Weird” is not illegal in the West.