Tajikistan has banned school and university teachers under the age of 50 from wearing beards and limited the beard length for older education staff. Tajikistan, which borders Afghanistan, regards radical Islamic groups as a threat and has cracked down on religious movements which are not in line with the state-sponsored version of Islam.
Men in the mostly Muslim ex-Soviet republic often wear beards as an attribute of faith. According to the rules, published at the weekend and effective from October 1, teachers aged over 50, can wear "a tidy beard no more than 3 centimetres (1.2 inches) long."
But, in a balancing nod to conservatism, the new rules also prohibit teachers from wearing Western-style clothes such as jeans, mini skirts and T-shirts. "All those novelties are introduced as part of an ongoing school and higher education reform and are in line with the mentality and the customs of our people," education ministry spokesman Abdulkhamid Nozimov told reporters on Monday. Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon has earlier banned mobile phones from schools and universities and said students should not arrive for lessons in their own cars.