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Beards are not allowed for young men

It has long been known that the human rights situation in Turkmenistan leaves much to be desired. According to Human Rights Watch, the Central Asian country is one of the most repressive in the world. Those who dare to express themselves critically of the government should expect to end up behind bars or even disappear altogether. People are therefore forced to submit to the strict rules and control of the state.

This also applies to a recently launched campaign against men with beards. Turkmenistan police are currently conducting nationwide raids arresting bearded young men, the news platform Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFERL) reports. The men are “shaved” by the police, among other things, and are not allowed to board planes and trains.

A 30-year-old man told RFERL how he was stopped by police at Turkmenbashi International Airport. He was ordered to shave off his beard because he had to “look just like his passport photo”. Otherwise, identification would not be possible, police claimed.

She also acts against bearded young men on the street and in public places. According to RFERL, the raids began in mid-May — without any announcement or explanation from the government.

In the northern city of Dashoguz, men were flocked to police stations where they were shaved against their will, RFERL continues. Some witnesses even reported having to sign a written statement promising not to grow a beard in the future.

Beards were already undesirable in 2004

The beard ban is nothing new in itself. As early as 2004, then-Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov instructed the Minister of Education to closely monitor the hair growth of young men. Beards and long hair are not allowed.

However, the president has not explained how this decree is to be implemented specifically. Many officials therefore assumed that this order would not prevail in the long run. As an official told the Institute for War & Peace Reporting at the time:

At one time, students were forced to wear the Turkmen national cap. But also in this case there were no guidelines for implementation, so that the decree fell into oblivion again after a few months, the institute reports.

However, the anti-beard rule turned out to be more stubborn. Even if it was not consistently enforced after 2005 and is still not enshrined in law today, there are always phases in which the police suddenly intervene again. This was also the case in 2019. A bus driver told The Chronicles of Turkmenistan that he was stopped by police while he was at work. After the police saw on his driver’s license that he was under 40 years old, they told him he was not allowed to wear a beard. They took away his driver’s license, which he only got back after he shaved his beard. Often the men are asked to pay a fine.

The origin of beard aversion

There are several explanations for the Turkmen government’s anti-beard stance. For example, the first decree of former president Saparmurat Niyazov would have aimed primarily at keeping the youth “docile”. Any form of individualism must be nipped in the bud with the strict hair and beard regulation.

Later, the beard ban was enforced mainly for nationalistic reasons, exposing the country’s divided relationship with Islam. In the course of Muslim conquests, Islam came to Central Asia as early as the early 8th century, after which the region developed into a part of Islamic civilization. The Turkmen incorporated Islam into their nomadic lifestyle while retaining many pre-Islamic customs.

However, with Soviet rule, Islam was then stopped, especially from 1926. It was declared an enemy of Communism and suppressed for almost 70 years, almost completely disappearing from public life. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Islam was allowed back by the first president of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov.

However, his priority was mainly to establish and maintain a nationalistic Turkmen identity, to which Islam was to be subordinated. Turkmenistan is officially considered a secular country, but the practice of religion is strictly regulated and controlled by the state. Above all, “Turkmen Islam” is promoted, which is intended to strengthen national identity. According to an American estimate, 89 percent of the 5.6 million population are Muslim.

So what does this have to do with beards? A long beard is considered by many locals to be an unconventional Islamic tradition that is inconsistent with the image of Turkmen Islam. The state takes this narrative even further by viewing long beards as an indication that those wearing them may espouse an extremist religion. This argument gained more weight when the Islamic State – not far from Turkmenistan – became a growing power in Syria and Iraq from 2014.

So there are both religious and nationalistic reasons behind the beard ban. By shaving off the beard, the young men would again reflect the image of traditional Turkmen.

Women also have to deal with strict rules

What the beard ban is for men is the beauty ban for women: Since last year, women are no longer allowed to wear tight clothing, false fingernails or eyelashes, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported in May 2022. Breast augmentations and lip fillers are also banned. The informal restrictions came into effect shortly after new president Serdar Berdymukhamedov took over from his father in a mock election on March 12.

Similar to what is now done with men, raids were carried out on a large scale: women were taken out of public places or from their offices if they were “caught” with false eyelashes or nails. At the police stations, they were forced to take off their beauty accessories and pay a fine. During Corona, they were even stopped on the street and had to take off their face masks so that the police could check whether there were sprayed lips behind them. Like the men, the women had to sign a written statement in which they promised not to wear tight clothing, artificial nails or eyelashes in the future.

As women reported to RFERL, the document included the following lines:

According to the news magazine The Diplomat, no announcement has ever been made for any of these restrictions. Neither the (state-controlled) press nor the state comment on this. Nevertheless, their goal is clear: to isolate the population from all outside influences, whether religious or everyday. They achieve this both through censorship and by banning anything that does not conform to the image of a traditional Turkmen man or woman.