Bearded folly.(Wild life)

Publication: Spectator

Publication Date: 24-APR-04

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COPYRIGHT 2004 The Spectator Ltd. (UK)

Kabul

In Nairobi I bumped into a friend who was home from running a safari camp for anti-terrorism troops in Kabul, which is where I was headed myself. He wore a mullah-style beard. 'Have you gone native or what, men?' I asked. 'Christ no, men,' he said. 'You'll need a beard in Afghanistan, eh? That way the snipers can't tell you're a mzungu from far off. And you'll need a flak jacket too, men.' Later the same day I read Robert Kaplan's brilliant book Soldiers of God, in which he describes how the Pathans regard males without decent beards as womanly--and possibly homosexual. This was three days before departure. What was I to do? I stopped shaving, but I...

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