Migrant Successfully Fights Off Deportation Case Because Home Country Would Force Him To Shave Beard

An asylum seeker in the U.K. successfully fought off deportation by arguing that he would be forced to shave off his beard if returned to his home country of Tajikistan.

The country’s Home Office attempted to deport the unidentified man, but an asylum court ruled that he is likely entitled to international protection because of his beard, according to the Telegraph. For years, Tajikistan’s government has enforced an unofficial no-beard policy for men in an ongoing campaign to prevent citizens from becoming radicalized and joining Islamic extremist organizations.

After his claim of persecution was initially dismissed, the man appealed on the basis that the first-tier tribunal did not adequately assess whether he would shave his beard because of “social pressures” or because of a legitimate fear of persecution, according to court documents obtained by the Telegraph. The Tajik asylum seeker claimed repatriation would leave him with “no option” but to shave his face, or else be jailed, tortured and have his facial hair forcibly removed.

“We find that this represents inadequate and incomplete reasoning in relation to the key issue of why the is willing to shave his beard on return to Tajikistan,” Parminder Saini, the Deputy Judge of the Upper Tribunal, reportedly stated about the case. “If he wears a beard out of religious conviction but will conform for reasons of securing his safety, he may be entitled to international protection.”

“If, however, he would conform because of social or other pressures, or simply because wearing a beard is not an act of faith for him, and not because of the risk of persecution, then he may not be a refugee,” Saini continued.

Afraid of following the paths of other Muslim-majority countries like Afghanistan, the Tajik government has waged an “anti-radicalization” campaign that has consisted of forcibly shaving the beards of hundreds of thousands of men in recent years, according to