Bearded Police Officers Protest Demanding Return To Work

Dozens staged protests on Friday in front of Abdeen Palace in downtown Cairo to demand allowing bearded police officers back to work.

A number of Salafi (ultraconservative) Parties joined the protests dubbed “No to exclusion.”

According to the Facebook page, ‘I am a bearded police officer’, Secretary General of the Police Officers Association Ashraf Banna announced his support for the right of officers to grow their beards.

Cairo’s High Administrative Court has issued a verdict allowing the officers to grow their beard, rejecting a request by the Interior Ministry to suspend the officers who do so.

The Interior Ministry then argued that growing beards is not consistent with the “discipline of policemen.”

Salafi Sheikh, Yasser Brohami, has issued a fatwa (religious ruling) that obliges the president to reinstate the bearded police officers in their work, saying that the Interior Ministry’s regulation barring bearded police officers is against Shariah (Islamic teachings).

Source:Aswat Masriya