A video uploaded to YouTube this week purports to show captured members of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s shabiha militia, with their mustaches half-shaven off, chanting “Allah bless the Free [Syrian] Army.”The enforced shaving of the ostensible Assad loyalists, a mark of disgrace and humiliation in Arab culture, presumably took place after they were captured by Free Syrian Army forces.
Yikes. They won't be able to show their faces in public for a couple of months at least.
It was not clear under what circumstances the pro-regime men were captured, nor could the authenticity of the videoÂ’s contents be confirmed.
The incident would hardly be the first case of retaliatory humiliation by either side in the Syrian conflict. Numerous videos uploaded to YouTube over the 16-month uprising against Assad have purported to show one side or the other mutilating or defiling the bodies of their opponents.
The next shot in this episode will be of three guys with half their pubic hair shaven off running around saying three women from the Syrian Army are running around with the other half of their pubic hair stuck to their face. That should cause aneurisms.