Mogadishu men ordered to grow beard in 30 days

“Personally, I don’t have a problem growing a beard, it’s just that you actually need more time to look after a proper beard than to simply shave,” he argued.

Mr Sabriye Mohamed, for his part, said he would continue to choose his own facial hair style because he lived in one of the few neighbourhoods still controlled by the Western-backed transitional federal government.

“I have heard the news about the law ordering men in Mogadishu to grow beards but it will have no impact on me because I live in the government-controlled area,” he said.

Such rules are already being implemented in some parts of the city and other regions of Somalia by Al-Shabaab which has a dedicated religious police branch known as “Jaysh al-Hisbah” (Army of morality).

Units from the movement’s “social mobilisation brigades” can often be seen criss-crossing busy areas on pick-up trucks and blaring instructions through loudspeakers to join the jihad and respect a pure Islamic clothing style.