No Country For Bearded Young Men: Only 'Well-Groomed' Tajiks Getting Passports
DUSHANBE -- Authorities in Tajikistan are being accused of stepping up a yearslong campaign against full beards by denying international passports to men who turn up shaggy for their photos.
President Emomali Rahmon has publicly discouraged beards, which are regarded by many officials in this impoverished Central Asian state as a foreign intrusion on local culture or a telltale sign of religious or other extremism.
During one recent week, more than a dozen Tajik men told RFE/RL's Tajik Service that passport officials had demanded that they return without beards if they want those essential international travel documents.
"They told me directly at the state visa and registration department that a passport for a man with a beard is only possible if the applicant is over 60 years of age," 51-year-old Soleh Navruzov said after being denied a passport when he submitted a photo of himself with a beard.
link
https://www.rferl.org/a/no-country-for-bearded-young-men-only-well-groomed-tajiks-getting-passports/29705257.html
Tajikistan Government has set up a barber shop in the same building
= new reply since forum marked as read
Hold him on suspicion of impersonating a genuine revolutionary
