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Promotion of virtue and suppression of vice in Khyber Agency

* For locals, being clean-shaved, missing prayers means fines or imprisonment, as sway of Amal Bil Maroof Wa Nahi Anil Munker organisation grows

By Iqbal Khattak

BARA: Taxi driver Muhammad Zarin is making it a habit to go to bed early so that he can wake up early in the morning. He is not developing the habit so that he can go for early morning walks; he is compelled to wake up early so that he can register his ‘presence’ at Fajr prayers. Being absent will render him liable for punishment from the Amal Bil Maroof Wa Nahi Anil Munker (Promotion of Virtue and Suppression of Vice) organisation in Khyber Agency’s Bar Kambarkhel area.

The organisation led by Haji Namdar has put attendance registers in all mosques in the area. Anyone who is absent during Fajr (early morning) and Isha (late evening) prayers is fined or imprisoned.

“If you are marked absent at these two prayers you will pay a Rs 100 fine for each prayer missed. I cannot afford to be fined as I make a few hundred rupees a day, to feed my seven-member family,” Zarin told Daily Times during the drive to Haji Namdar’s headquarters last week.

The prayer leaders of all the mosques must report absentees to the organisation’s council of elders, which then decides on whether to fine or imprison them.

Asked about the ‘stringent measures’ the organisation was practicing to Islamise the area, Munsif Ali Khan, the organisation’s spokesman, told Daily Times: “The punishment is hardly awarded. Yes, what we try to do is to influence the young men to grow a beard.”

To a follow-up question on what methods they use to ‘influence’ young men to grow beards, he responded: “To make him spend a night in [a private] prison or with a Rs 100 fine.”

This is another decision taken by the organisation for local residents which is hitting the youth particularly hard, since many of them would prefer to remain clean-shaved. Nevertheless, every local male must grow a beard as there is no place for beardless men in Bar Kambarkhel.

“I have to grow a beard if I want to live here,” said a young student, whose beard has just appeared across his face. “It makes no difference whether you like or dislike growing a beard. You have to go by the organisation’s decision,” the student told Daily Times, requesting that his name not be divulged.

Even trimmed beards will no longer do. The organisation has set new standards for what constitutes an acceptable beard. “I heard trimmed beards are no longer allowed as your beard must meet Islamic standards,” said the 16-year-old student.

The federal minister for environment, Hameedullah Jan Afridi, hails from the Bar Kambarkhel area, where Amal Bil Maroof Wa Nahi Anil Munker holds sway. According to the organisation, the clean-shaven minister is not ‘allowed’ to visit his home village without appropriate facial hair.

“From the organisation’s viewpoint, he [the minister] is not allowed to come to Bar Kambarkhel without a beard,” Khan told Daily Times.

How seriously the organisation takes the beard, a clean-shaven Daily Times Peshawar bureau chief soon found out. A council of elders pointed at him and one of them shouted out: “[It would be] better if you used a wig to visit our area instead of being clean-shaven.”

The organisation’s influence appears to be spreading across the Bar Kambarkhel area. Residents from across the area approach the Amal Bil Maroof Wa Nahi Anil Munker council of elders to redress their grievances. The council gives applicants the option to have their cases decided through rawaj (tribal traditions) or Shariah law.

Asked why he was using force to enforce Shariah law in Bar Kambarkhel, Haji Namdar responded, but only when after switching off the Daily Times tape-recorder. His answer, therefore, remains unrecorded.

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