A costly trim: Student suspended for getting an ‘English cut’

Grade 9 student not allowed to attend classes for ‘violation’.

PESHAWAR:

There have been stories aplenty about extremist elements publicly punishing men who groom their facial hair in the far-flung tribal badlands of Pakistan.

However, the practice has now been reported a little closer to home:  At a school in Peshawar, where the institution’s administration suspended a student for trimming his beard too fine – or, to be more precise, for getting an “English cut”.

The school’s administration has denied expelling the student – claiming that the boy’s father himself pulled his son out after submitting an application.

Mohammad Sharif, a resident of the Saeedabad locality of the provincial capital, told The Express Tribune that his son Hafiz Mohammad Hamza – a student of class 9 at the Iqra Huffaz School and College, Warsak Road, Peshawar – was suspended on October 4, 2011.

“When I asked my son why he was suspended, he replied that ‘I trimmed my beard a bit fine by mistake due to which the administration asked me not to attend school for eight days.’”

Sharif said that the next day he sent his son to school, but received a call from him asking to be picked up, as he was not being allowed to enter the class.

“When I got there, my son was sitting outside the class. Upon approaching the principal, I was told that my son had trimmed his beard, and that whoever does so will not be allowed inside the school.”

He said he revisited the school two days later and approached another teacher, submitting an application asking to allow his son to attend the class. However, the principal seized him by the hand and led him out of the office after tearing up the application.

Sharif said he has also approached the school’s administration in Karachi, but they too questioned him on his son’s actions. He noted that his son had not shaved his beard, rather, had only trimmed it, adding that “he never used a blade.”

He said the school had not informed him about any such rules beforehand and that his son had been studying at the school for more than 10 years. “I took my son to several other schools, but for the past few months he is languishing at home wasting time because of the school’s behaviour.”

And then he asked the question: “Is it lawful to deny education to someone over such an issue?”

A notice issued by the school, dated October 4, 2011, and available with The Express Tribune, states that “Muhammad Hamza, son of Muhammad Sharif, of class 9 D, has been suspended with immediate effect for cutting his beard and violating rules.”

An official of the school, Maulana Israr Rahim, said a beard was part of the school’s uniform and that every student and parent signs an affidavit declaring that they will abide by the school rules. “We have their signatures on the document. He has clearly violated the rules by getting an English cut.”

He said that they had not expelled him from the school, but rather suspended him till he corrects his mistake. He said that it was the student’s father who had quarrelled with the staff and submitted an application and pulled him out.

“We are ready to take the child back if his father apologises to the administration and assures them of not repeating the mistake in the future.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2012.