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)!
As much as I dislike the ‘Maulanas’ who brought about this reaction from PIA I think it is a violation of civil liberties.
That said, the beard should have rules as to how it should appear. Eedie Man makes a point in his comment. PIA is in a competitive business [atleast one would think they are other than carrying Hajj traffic and people who don’t have a choice] and as such should make appropriate decisions.
I think this is completely ludicrous. PIA is just playing into the hands of stereotype and racism. “Oh my god – how can there be a guy with a huge beard on this plane?!? Someone tell the captian! He IS the CAPTAIN?!”
This is idiocy. How will anyone ever break the barriers of stereotyping if everyone is forced to look the same. I would think PIA is in a unique place to be able to SHOW to the world that Muslim does NOT equal terrorist, and they should be happy to have bearded pilots.
I’d just like to add my voice to the other’s who have mentioned hygiene as one possible reason for the ban. While there is no ideological reason for the ban, and having a beard in and of itself is not a bad thing, I can understand the practicality in asking flight attendants to shave.
Any person employed in a food service profession needs to keep their beard hair trimmed or cut, if not, the chance of hair falling into food, etc, can cause serious health problems for passengers.
Perhaps we shouldn’t jump to conclusions that this beard ban was imposed for ideological reasons.
@ D_a_n
Very well put.
Zecchetti sahib, in Urdu the type of messages you have been posting is called “boongi maarna.”
Why are you accusing people of saying things that they never did and needlessly searching for a fight. That is what is called “gheebat.”
No one except you has been denying the Quran. The Quran says that you should think and make the right decisions for society and your times. You are saying that we should not. So you are the Quran denier here.
As for beards, the Quran is not a hair stylists guide. A darhi may be a sunnat, as are so many other things. If you keep one, good for you. Horray! Now that you have one, please also try to follow the real purpose of the Quran, which includes not picking fights and telling lies about what others are saying.
And, please, do not abuse the Quran again the way you have been by trying to use it as a tool to make false arguments or to malign others.
Wassalam