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‘Wearing shorts’, a new crime |
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July 18, 2000
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) - Afghanistan's religious police arrested Pakistani football players and shaved their heads, officials said Monday. Their crime: wearing shorts. The Pakistani football team was arrested Saturday from the sports stadium in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, the headquarters of the hardline Taliban militia, they said. The arrest came in the middle of the third and final match between the Pakistan and Afghan football clubs, Maulvi Hameed Akhund, a Taliban official told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. Five of Pakistan's 17-member team escaped arrest. One took refuge in the Pakistani consulate in Kandahar. "They were arrested because they violated the Islamic dress code," which outlaws exposing any part of the body, Akhund said. But not everyone agreed with the arrests. The Taliban's governor of Kandahar apologized. "They were our guests and shouldn't be treated like this," said Maulvi Mohammed Hasan. The raid triggered a stampede in the stadium where several hundred spectators were watching the match. Scores of spectators were injured in the stampede, according to a Pakistani Urdu-language daily newspaper, The Jang. The Pakistani players were released Sunday and turned over to the Pakistani consulate -- all of them had their heads shorn. Afghanistan's ultra-orthodox Taliban rulers have imposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law in the 90 percent of Afghanistan under their control. Their long list of rules include not wearing shorts or short sleeve shirts in public. While the majority of their harshest edicts effect women, like banning them from work and attending school, they also have targeted men. In Afghanistan men are not allowed to shave or trim their beards and must attend the mosque to pray five times a day. Anyone caught defying the rules can be publicly beaten. Islamic scholars say that the Taliban's interpretation of Islam reflects Afghanistan's tribal traditions rather than the edicts of the religion. |