Tag: beard

Security services authorised to grow beards

Police and Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) officer uniform regulations have been amended to allow the growing of beards.

Police Commissioner Abdulla Riyaz informed local media that the police management board had decided to allow officers to grow beards as officers had been requesting it.

Riyaz said the regulations had been amended and sent to the Home Ministry to be forwarded to the President’s Office, for publication in the government gazette on June 1.

According to the new amendment, police will be allowed to grow their beards up to two centimetres in length.

Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim has also confirmed the uniform regulations for MNDF officers will be amended, and published in the government gazette.

Nazim told local newspapers that the decision was made after requests from MNDF officers, on the grounds of religion and human rights.

The growing of beards by the armed forces was permitted in many other countries, Nazim said.

In May 2012, the Islamic Ministry requested amendments to the uniform code of the security services to authorise army and police officers to grow facial hair.

A media official from the ministry told Minivan News at the time that a letter was sent to the President’s Office officially requesting the policy change “to give permission to police and army officers to grow beards as in other Islamic countries, since our constitution is based on Islamic principles.”

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Inmates at Maafushi Prison ordered to trim beards to be eligible for parole, claims family member

Inmates in Maafushi Prison have been handed a notice informing them that they must have short hair and trimmed or shaved beards in order to be eligible for parole, a family member of an inmate informed Minivan News.

The source told Minivan News that the notice handed to inmates states that according to Prison Order 12, article 1.5, inmates shall not grow their hair and beard unless for “a medical purpose”, and hair must be trimmed or shaved, or they would not be eligible for parole.

The notice also stated that in a meeting held by the Parole Board on April 11, 2012, the board decided to consider hair as a disciplinary issue when selecting inmates for parole, and that inmates who insisted on long hair or growing their beards would have it recorded as a misdeed in their disciplinary record, according to the source.

The notice was made in compliance with Second Chance Program Office memo number 479/167/2012/113, Minivan News was informed.

When considering parole the board will check for record of misdeeds over the past six months.

Parole Board Chair Dr Ali Shahid Mohamed meanwhile denied that the Parole Board made such a decision.

‘’We are not mandated to determine the regulations and rules of the prison, we only see their disciplinary records and we will see what progress the inmate has made in prison,’’ Shahid said.

Shahid said he does not know what the prison regulations stated about beard and hair.

‘’We did not make any specific decision related to hair or beard in the meeting that day, we enhanced an earlier decision to consider the inmates disciplinary record when releasing inmates on parole,’’ he said.

Parole Board member from Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Service (DPRS) Bilal did not respond to calls at time of press.

DPRS Director General Mohamed Rasheed’s mobile phone was switched off.

In November last year a group of prison guards working in Maafushi Prison filed a case at the Maafushi Court after they were ordered to shave off their beards.

Maafushi Court ruled that growing a beard for men in Islam is more than a Sunnah and almost ‘waajib’ (obligatory), and that prison officers should not be asked to shave off their beards.

In March this year the High Court invalidated the ruling saying that Maafushi Court gave no opportunity for the defendant – the Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Services (DPRS) – to say anything before the case was concluded, and that therefore the ruling was unlawful.

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High Court invalidates Maafushi Court’s ruling on prison officers’ beards

The High Court has ruled that Maafushi Court’s ruling that prison officers on the island be allowed to grow their beards was unlawful because Maafushi Court gave no opportunity for the defendant – the Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Services (DPRS) – to say anything before the case was concluded.

The High Court also said that Maafushi Court’s ruling stated that the case was presented to the court by eight parties, but said that in the form presented to Maafushi Court there was only one person listed as the petitioner.

The High Court’s ruling, delivered by High Court Judges Shuaib Hassan Zakariyya, Abdulla Hameed and Yousuf Hussain, delivered the verdict made no mention about the legality of prison officers growing beards.

Last year a group of prison officers working for the DPRS filed a case against a requirement that male officers shave off their beards.

Maafushi Court Judge Ibrahim Hussain at the time ruled that men should not be told to shave their beards ‘’to make them look like women’’. All Prophets, from Adam to Mohamed (PBUH), grew beards, the judge observed.

In September last year, Rector of the Faculty of Sharia Law, Dr Ibrahim Zakariyya Moosa, reportedly said that a female student wearing the face veil studying at the Faculty of Sharia Law would be asked to remove it during class or face being expelled if she refused to do so.

Later the girl filed the case in the Civil Court, which has not yet reached a verdict.

Speaking to the press, current Attorney General Azima Shukoor said wearing the face veil in class should not be banned.

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Prison officers must not be banned from growing beards, rules Maafushi Court

Maafushi Court has ruled that growing a beard for men in Islam is more than a Sunnah and almost ‘waajib’ (obligatory), after a group of prison officers working for the Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Service (DPRS) filed a case against a requirement that male officers shave off their beards.

Delivering the verdict, Maafushi Court Judge Ibrahim Hussain said that men should not be told to shave their beards ‘’to make them look like women’’. All Prophets, from Adam to Mohamed (PBUH), grew beards, reported Raajjeislam.

‘’While the beard is more than a Sunnah and almost an obligatory thing in Islam, and while some scholars say it is obligatory, no employee in this 100 percent Muslim nation should be forced to shave their beard,’’ the website quoted the judge as saying.

‘’The court hereby orders the DPRS to ensure that no employee is asked to shave their beard.’’

The judge also added that as the Maldives is a 100 percent Muslim nation, no law against the tenets of Islam can be enacted in the Maldives.

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