Kabul: The Taliban have banned hairdressers in Afghanistan's Helmand province from shaving or trimming beards, a media report said.
"The Taliban have banned stylish hairstyles and shaving beards in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan," The The Frontier Post reported citing the Taliban's letter.
The publication further stated that officials from the Ministry of Islamic Orientation, at a meeting with representatives of men's hairdressing salons in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, advised against styling hair and shaving beards.
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In a notice posted on salons in Helmand province, Taliban officers warned that hairdressers must follow Sharia law for haircuts and beards, BBC reported.
Anyone violating the rule will be punished, the Taliban's religious police have said. Some barbers in the capital Kabul said that they have also received similar orders.
"No one has a right to complain," the notice, which was seen by the BBC, read.
The instructions suggest a return to the strict rulings of the group's past tenure in power, despite promises of a milder form of government.
During the Taliban's first stint in power from 1996 to 2001, the hardline Islamists banned flamboyant hairstyles and insisted that men grow beards.
(With IANS inputs)
