Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Egypt’s police, encouraged by the new Islamist regime, have
been allowed to grow beards.

An Egyptian court has ruled that policemen could grow beards. In a
ruling on Feb. 20, the court overruled an Interior Ministry suspension of
bearded officers.

“The court ruled that police officers have the right to grow beards,”
High Administrative Judge Maher Abu El Enin said.

The Cairo court ordered the ministry to rescind the suspension of nearly 50 officers because they refused to shave their beards. The suspension prompted objections by President Mohammed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader who wears a beard.

The Interior Ministry policy stemmed from the regime of then-President Hosni Mubarak, ousted in 2011. Under Mubarak, civil servants with beards were often denied promotions.

Human rights groups have asserted that the ministry and police were
coming under Islamist influence since Morsi’s election in June 2012. They said the police were conducting systematic torture in 2013.

“Some of the crimes have even gone beyond that,” a statement by more
than a dozen human rights groups said on Feb. 20. “Matters were made worse
by repeating mistakes of the past when the presidency and the government were late in intervening or condemning such
crimes, or taking serious immediate measures to stop them and hold the
culprits accountable.”

  Courts in Islamist Egypt rule cops now allowed to grow beards, Hosni Mubarak, Maher Abu El Enin, Mohammed Morsi