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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 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.
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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 warnings’ 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