« If anyone violates the rule [they] will be punished and no one has a right to complain, » said the order issued to the barbers.
Barbershops in southern Afghanistan were banned from shaving or trimming beards on Monday, a new edict issued by the Taliban that they said is in line with Shariah law. The provincial Taliban government’s vice and virtue department issued the order in Helmand province to barbers in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. The Taliban has also banned music and public baths in the province, the latest in a series of hardline Islamist policies harkening back to the militant group’s 1990s rule. « Since I have heard [about the ban on trimming beards] I am heartbroken, » said Bilal Ahmad, a Lashkar Gah resident. « This is the city and everyone follows a way of living, so they have to be left alone to do whatever they want.
