Wear a beard or face jail, ISIL tells men in Mosul

Mosul residents said a tougher beard policy was a ploy, not a sign of renewed religious zeal among ISIL militants.

BAGHDAD // Every time he looks in a mirror, Laith Ahmed is worried. The young Iraqi’s hopelessly hairless chin could land him in an ISIL group jail.

The militant group has handed out leaflets in their stronghold of Mosul in recent weeks announcing that full beards will become compulsory from Monday, and explaining why shaving is punishable.

“My facial hair is just slow to come out for my age,” said the 18-year-old, who did not give his real name for fear of retribution.

“I’m scared because they deal ruthlessly with anyone who opposes or ignores their instructions,” he said from Mosul, the de facto Iraqi capital of ISIL’s self-proclaimed caliphate.

“My work in a bakery means I have to leave home every day and interact with Daesh militants,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for the extremist group.

Unlike some of the other cities ISIL conquered in Iraq, Mosul still holds a large civilian population, making any air campaign difficult.

The group made Mosul a laboratory for its state-building experiment, where it regulates everything from education to the opening hours of shops.

“What hairdressers do today, shaving and trimming men’s beards, is an accessory to sin,” reads the leaflet, which quotes a selection of hadiths, or sayings of the Prophet Mohammed, supporting the claim that he banned shaving.

“An order has been issued for the shaving of beards to be banned and violators to be detained,” it says.

Nadhim Ali, a 30-year-old taxi driver, said he has never been able to grow a beard or even a moustache because of his bad skin rashes.

He said he submitted medical reports on the matter to the religious police. “They didn’t care ... One of them told me I’d better stay at home if I shaved.”

The Taliban in Afghanistan had so-called “beard patrols” that could send men to jail for three days to a week simply for having trimmed their beard.

Mosul residents said a tougher beard policy was a ploy, not a sign of renewed religious zeal.

“We all know what Daesh is trying to achieve with these unacceptable laws on women wearing the veil and men growing beards,” said a teacher, who gave her name as Umm Mohammed.

“They want to make everyone a human shield ... With military operations [to retake Mosul] looming, they want to blend in with the population,” she said.

Airstrikes by Iraqi and US-led coalition warplanes have targeted ISIL positions and hideouts in the Mosul area since August 2014 but any effort to reclaim control of the city has yet to begin in earnest.

A former member of the security services who still lives in Mosul said ISIL militants had been adopting a lower profile in recent months.

“For example, ISIL members lately have been using more and more regular, unmarked civilian cars. They’ve ditched the military vehicles and flags,” he said.

“This new rule on growing beards is in the same vein. They want to hide among civilians,” he said.

* Agence France-Presse