Scores of Yemeni soldiers lined up outside barber shops in Sanaa and other towns Friday in response to a new order from the military high command that beards are no longer allowed in the Yemeni armed forces. No explanation was given officially, but an informed Yemeni source said the order was the latest move in Yemini government crackdown on Islamic fundamentalists following the killing of three U.S. Baptist missionaries earlier this week, and -- in a separate action -- the assassination of the leftist leader of the oppposition.
In recent months, there has been a sharp increase in the number of military personnel who have grown beards as a sign that the wearer is a Muslim fundamentalist, or a sympathizer, the source said. Friday's order said that any soldier reporting to his barracks still wearing a beard would not be allowed to report for duty. "I was forbidden from entering my barracks near Sanaa International Airport until I shaved my beard," one soldier told United Press International. "Such measure didn't exist before."
Now this is very interesting. Going after a symbol like this is a direct challenge to the fundamentalists. Its not something we would have asked them to do, they had to have come up with it on their own. Maybe the Yemeni government is serious. |