Somali militants enforce Taliban-style dress code: long beards, short hair, no long trousers

Somali militants enforce Taliban-style dress code

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Residents of a southern Somali town say Islamists are enforcing a Taliban-style dress code.

Kismayo resident Abdulahi Omar Dhere says members of the al-Shabab insurgent group are targeting young men who have long hair, no beards and wear Western-style trousers below the ankle.

Dhere said Wednesday that Islamists are publicly cutting off parts of trousers that violate the order and giving haircuts to anyone with long hair. The group has ordered men to grow beards and shave mustaches.

Al-Shabab has already banned movie theaters, musical ringtones and dancing at weddings — echoing rules ones imposed by the Taliban when they ruled most of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, though the group didn’t oppose long hair.