Mormon university urged to ‘Bring back the beard!’

AFP 21 August 2021

A retired professor fed up with a ban on beards at a Mormon Church-run university has launched a petition to overturn the rule insisting that students must be clean-shaven. The edict at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Utah in the United States dates back to the 1960s, when hirsuteness was associated with hippies and a counterculture at odds with the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the official name of the Mormons, reports AFP.

The university’s dress code says: “Sideburns should not extend below the earlobe or onto the cheek. If worn, mustaches should be neatly trimmed and may not extend beyond or below the corners of the mouth. Men are expected to be clean-shaven; beards are not acceptable.” The only exceptions are granted for religious reasons – some Muslim students, for example – or for medical conditions, like ingrowing hairs.

But Warner Wordsworth, professor emeritus at BYU, says it is time for a change. He has launched a “Bring Back the Beard!” petition on change.org, demanding the rules are updated. “We need a new more ethical and humane policy allowing beards on campus,” he wrote on the petition.
Full report on the France24 site

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