Iran closes barbers offering ‘un-Islamic’ cuts
Iran has shut down barber shops offering unconventional Western hair styles amid a police crackdown on dress deemed un-Islamic, reports said…. “Over the past 15 days, 13 barbers’ shops that had not respected the union’s directives have been closed down,” police commander Mohammad Ali Najafi said. He told the Etemad daily that the barbers’ union had banned eyebrow-plucking for men as well as “deviant Western styles”…. Tehran’s barbers’ union said in April that police had issued a directive forbidding its members from giving men offbeat hairstyles. The directive also banned the use of cosmetics in male salons. Shoulder-length, spiky or heavily gelled styles for men have long angered Iran’s religious conservatives.
Uh…what??? Could someone PLEASE show me where it says in the Koran than men must look like Navy cadets? Apparently, individualism is a no-no in Islam, but worse than that, I fail to see how the length or style of one’s hair has any bearing on one’s fealty to the tenets of Islam? No, this really has nothing to do with Islam. What’s it’s about is the ability of the ignorant, radical Muslims who hold Iran in thrall to their lunacy exercising as much control over individual expression as they can get away with.
Granted, I’m no expert on Islam or the Koran, but even what I do know tells me that the length or style of a man’s hair is no indication of his piety and his devotion to the teachings of Mohammed. The government of Iran may contend that they’re governing their country according to the tenets of Islam, but the reality is that this lunacy is all about power and control- they have it, they can exercise it in whatever manner they see fit, and the people of Iran are left to suffer the consequences.
Then again, there is a lesson that we here in this country can draw from Iran. There are those dominionist theocrats in this country who would scrap the parts of the Constitution that don’t fit with their narrow agenda and rule according to their version of Christianity. When you wonder what a theocracy might look like here in the United States, you really need look no further than Iran to see what ignorant religiosity can accomplish when allowed free reign.
Today, Tehran. Tomorrow….?
