Authorities shave 13,000 men's beards in Tajikistan to end radicalism

Authorities in Tajikistan shave nearly 13,000 men's beards and in 2015 closed 60 shops that sold traditional Muslim clothing, as part of a new approach to fight "foreign" influences in the country, reports Al Jazeera.

Many see it as a move to battle radicalism in the country. Police have also ordered more that 1,700 women and girls to stop wearing  headscarves in the Muslim-majority country, revealed the head of the south-west Khathlon region's police Bahrom Sharifzoda in a press conference on Wednesday.

Tajikistan's secular leadership has long sought to prevent radical traditions from neighbouring Afghanistan from contaminating its country, according to Al Jazeera.  It has been reported, more than 2,000 Tajiks are fighting in Syria.

The country's parliament  also recently voted to ban Arabic-sounding  names and marriages between first cousins. President Emomali Rahmon, who has taken initiatives to promote secularism, is expected to approve the legislation. Radio Liberty reported,  Rahmon has also discouraged practises and beliefs he feels is a " threat to stability of Tajikistan".

Tajikistan's Supreme Court in September 2015, banned the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan - the country's only registered Islamic political party, which the government blamed on radical Islamism, after ongoing violence.

Rahmon, who has ruled since 1994 is expected to end his current presidential term in 2020. In December 2015, the parliament granted the president and his family "life-long immunity from prosecution" and gave Rahmon the title "Leader of the nation".​