Soldiers and Police officials may not be able to grow beard as per a government decree banning them from wearing beards on duty.
A heated debate has sparked in Iraq about religious freedoms after decades of authoritarian rule as reported in one of the best Islamic website OnIslam.net.
“It is interference in the personal freedoms we started to taste after the toppling of the regime.” police mechanic Abu Haider told.
Iraq has long allowed police and soldiers to wear beards to a certain length while on duty.
Islamic Ruling on Growing Beard
But in April, the Shiite-majority government banned soldiers and police from wearing beards on duty.
But the ban has triggered a heated debate on religious freedoms in a country where sectarian divisions between Shiites and Sunnis still fester close to the surface reported OnIslam.net.
Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr, whose militia once fought American troops but who now forms part of the coalition government, called the ban a “sin” and a religious offence.