Man jailed for six years for growing a beard

A court in China has sentenced a man to six years in jail for ‘provoking trouble" and growing a beard.

The court in the desert oasis city of Kashgar, which is in the mainly Muslim Xinjiang region, sentenced the 38-year-old man to six years in prison, while his wife was handed a two-year sentence.

The couple were found guilty of ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble", a vague accusation regularly used in the Chinese judicial system.

The man "had started growing his beard in 2010” while his wife ‘wore a veil hiding her face and a burqa", the newspaper China Youth Daily, reported.

For more than a year the authorities in Xinjiang have been campaigning against men growing beards – a practice officials associate with extremist ideas.

A campaign dubbed ‘Project Beauty" also encourages women to leave their heads bare and abandon wearing the veil, a relatively widespread practice among the Uighurs – the main Muslim ethnic group in Xinjiang.

The Kashgar couple had ‘received several waings" before being charged, according to local officials.

A spokesperson said: ‘Since the beginning of the year, a certain number of people breaking the regulation on beards, veils and burqas have been prosecuted and sentenced."

Kashgar authorities have been unavailable for comment.