Adil Najam
According to a news item in The News, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is going to implement a ban on growing beards – except for French beards – on all male cabin crew:
In a recent notification, PIA administration has announced to have reviewed its policy regarding beards, and said now male cabin crew could not grow beards and they could only have French-cut beards.
Not surprisingly, religious scholars and ulema condemned PIA for this, calling the ban a violation of constitutional and fundamental human rights. Whether this is or is not the most important constitutional violation of our age, the ulema are, in fact, right.
Unless there is a sound technical reason for it (and there seems not to be), forcing someone to take off their beard is deserving of condemnation as much as forcing someone to grow a beard. Especially if either of the act is ideologically motivated; no matter what the ideology. Of course, forcing someone to grow a beard on threat of death or violence is particularly disturbing. But, frankly, a threat to one’s livelihood is also reprehensible.
Right now, I myself do not have a beard. And that is not an ideological statement one way or the other. But my own position remains unchanged from October 2006 when I had commented on facial hair for cricketers:
By way of disclosure I should add that I occasionally sprout facial hair of my own but am mostly clean-shaven. But as a deep and committed adherent of people’s right of expression (how can a blogger not be that!) I stand committed to defend people’s right to facial hair, whether they are grown for stylistic elegance or religious expression.
More pertinent was the June 2006 decision by Habib Bank to ban shalwar kameez and facial hair (by the way, can someone please confirm if that policy was ever implemented). In that case the issue had focused more on the wearing of shalwar kameez to work and the argument that this somehow made the person look less “trustworthy” and less “presentable.” Facial hair were also targeted for the same reason. On the issue of beards, trustworthiness and presentability, my argument was rather simple:
Dr. Abdus Salam? Abdul Sattar Edhi? Sir Syed Ahmed Khan?
Presentable? You bet.
Trustworthy? More than any banker I ever met.
As a rather frequent traveler on PIA – in fact, I read this news item on a PIA plane retruning from Karachi to Islamabad, and one of the cabin staff was supporting a huge beard – I too have noticed that the number of crew members with facial hair, especially large beards, has increased dramatically over the years. But that is a factor of what has been happening in society. PIA has plenty of big problems to deal with, and this seems to be the least of them.
At least in my experience, the quality of service one gets is not at all dependent on the amount of facial hair. Maybe the management should focus on that before it starts following the example of the Swat Taliban in judging people by the length of their facial hair (or not)!
I think the commenters are taking the discussion in a different direction (as usual!). The point was that forcefully making people shave off their beards is as bad as forcefully making them grow one.
If an employee wants to sport a beard for religious reasons, I’m sure he can do so in harmony with a trimmed, well-kept one.
I’m sure Allah doesn’t judge us by the length of our beards, rather by what is in our hearts.
@ Zecchetti
You used beautiful words…yep…just words…thats all they are. People before our Prophet had beards too, its not like he introduced beard. Someone in this blog said that facial hair are natural and that is why we should not cut ‘em…what about nails…they are also natural, why cut nails? Muslims like you, Zecchetti, have been fooled since 14th century for believing and following the beliefs that have been passed down to them without using common sense….result is obvious…we are the most backward and failed religion of the modern world. I know I am going to be cursed by many of you bloggers…which is OK, however I said what is true.
@ Asim
How dare you make that ignorant despicable claim about the Prophet sallallahu alaihy wasalam. Allah describes him as a man of exalted character and an EXAMPLE to humanity. Allah tells his Prophet to say “If you love Allah, follow me”. So why would he follow others if he were in the 21st century??!
His sunnat is the best way. He was a shephard, not a sheep. We are the sheep and he is the shepherd that we must follow.
ummm…mullas are now giving lectures on “human rights”…..buwhaa ha ha ha ha
Most western travelers, for cultural reasons, find long beards unhygenic. What if this action is a result of complaints from travelers?
How many western travellers’ airline of choice is PIA?
Sorry this was a bad joke on my part. My bad!
But seriously, this argument might make some sense if the restriction was placed on international flights only (I don’t think it has), and even then, it would be a move based on false logic.
alcohol is banned in Islam and I
their airline service is deplorable and I hope that I don’t ever have to fly with them.
Shame on PIA :-(