The ruling militant group Taliban have banned hairdressers and groomers in the Helmand province of Afghanistan from shaving or trimming beards because the practice goes against their interpretation of Islamic law, reported BBC. Anyone who trims a person’s beard or violates this new rule in any way will be punished, said the Taliban’s religious police.

A notice has been posted on salons in southern Helmand province, Taliban officers warned that hairdressers must follow Sharia law for haircuts and beards.

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“No one has a right to complain,” the notice, which was seen by the BBC, said.

According to BBC, some hairdressers in the capital city of Kabul have also received similar orders directing them not to trim beards.

“The fighters keep coming and ordering us to stop trimming beards. One of them told me they can send undercover inspectors to catch us,” BBC quoted a barber from Kabul as saying.

Another hairdresser, who owns one of Kabul’s biggest salons, said he received a call from someone claiming to be a government official and instructed him to “stop following American styles” and not to shave or trim anyone’s beard, reported BBC.

Some hairdressers who talked to BBC on a condition of anonymity said that the new rules have made it harder for them to do their job and has also affected their earnings.

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“For many years my salon was somewhere for young people to shave as their wish and look trendy. There is no point to continue this business,” a hairdresser told BBC

“Fashion salons and barbers are becoming forbidden businesses. This was my job for 15 years and I don’t think I can continue,” BBC quoted another as saying.

However, these fashion curbs and restrictive rules are not new for the militant group, during their previous regime from 1996 to 2001, the extremist Islamists banned flamboyant and west inspired hairstyles and insisted that men grow beards.

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But after the democratic government came back to power, men started practising fashionable looks and since then, clean-shaven looks have become popular and many Afghan men have gone to salons for fashionable cuts.

Not just fashion, under Sharia law, the Taliban have also banned women education and work calling it against the ideals of Islam.