On September 14, TIME magazine published an article entitled "For the Love of a Mustache: Pakistani Man Forced to Flee Hometown Over Facial Hair" on their website. After coming across the headline I was left with one thought, and one thought only: what!?
Malik Ameer Muhammad Afridi is a father of ten children from Bara, Pakistan. He doesn't live there anymore, though. His house was invaded by men from an extremist group four years ago. The men took him to a cleric who decided that his mustache broke the Islamic law. They then shaved his mustache off at gunpoint. Afridi spent eighteen months growing out his mustache again, which has now grown out to twelve inches long, and moved to Peshawar to secure the safety of his precious facial hair. He reportedly spends thirty minutes a day grooming his mustache with almond oil extract, coconut oil extract, a gel from Germany, and the help of his wife. Despite the 5,000 Pakistani rupees a month that the government gives him to maintain his majestical mustache, Afridi still spends a considerable amount of his own money on his 'stache.
This article raised so many questions for me. Why would he flee his hometown for the safety of his mustache when his life was being threatened? Was having his mustache forcefully shaved really worse than being abducted from his home and held at gunpoint? Why on earth would this man uproot his twelve-person family to protect his facial hair? Why is the government now giving him 5,000 Pakistani rupees a month to care for the hair growing out of his upper lip? Am I the only one who feels completely befuddled by this information?
I'm hoping that there's some kind of cultural barrier keeping me from understanding the logic behind this story... If not, I'd say that this man has the potential to give Narcissus a run for his money.
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