TEHRAN- (AFP) – Tehran’s barbers are to stop offering Iranian men unconventional Western hairstyles amid a nationwide crackdown on dressing deemed to be unIslamic, the Etemad newspaper reported on Sunday.
TEHRAN- (AFP) – Tehran’s barbers are to stop offering Iranian men unconventional Western hairstyles amid a nationwide crackdown on dressing deemed to be unIslamic, the Etemad newspaper reported on Sunday.
The paper quoted the head of the Tehran barbers’ association as saying police had issued a directive forbidding its members from giving men offbeat hairstyles that are all the rage in more affluent parts of the capital.
"Currently some salons use Western grooming methods to create styles that are in line with the European and American ones," said the association’s head, Mohammad Eftekhari-Fard.
"The union has repeatedly announced the restrictions against unconventional grooming when issuing permits to each of the barber shops. Hence barbers, knowing these rules, should not pursue the wrong methods," he warned.
"The union will withdraw its support from those barbers who cut hairstyles that are out of line with the norms of the system," he said.
Eftekhari-Fard did not specify which hairstyles were being targeted, but conservatives in Iran have long been upset by the heavy use of styling gel, shoulder-length hair and the spiky "big hair" styles sported by some of Tehran’s young males.
The directive also banned the use of "facial cosmetics, plucking of eyebrows and applying special make-up in male salons," he said.
Iran has handed out thousands of warnings over the past week to women found to have infringed Islamic dress rules in the latest police crackdown.
However the authorities have emphasised that men are not excluded from the drive, and males whose T-shirts were found to be too short or tight and hair excessively groomed have also found themselves apprehended.
Eftekhari-Fard told Etemad that while only five percent of Tehran hair salons were deviating from the laws, they would be strictly monitored and if necessary their permits taken away for at least a month.
Customers would also not be allowed to wear ties and bow-ties — frowned upon in Iran as a symbol of Western imperialism — in barber shops, he said.
