School rules are normally made by schools keeping some basic things in mind. Perhaps if you were to look at this schools rule for not keeping beard, you will not find any such rule . What it would say is the there should be no "facial hair". While you are thinking of beard as the free flowing long beards, the school (as they kids are still 14-15 year old) is more worried about 1-2 day old "stubble". And if you have seen anyone with a day or two stubble, he looks kind of lazy and sleepy. So the rule is nothing more then a way for the school that every student looks** properly groomed,** nothing wrong with that.
As i have added in my last post, the Peshawar high court judge had asked a women lawyer not to wear a veil in the court as she was a professional. Bascially his intent was to convey the message that the judge had to see the face of the lawyer to know he was indeed talking to the right lawyer and also so that he could hear her clearly. Now you can take this situation and understand what the intent is !!!!!!
OK sir.
My post will be directed to the bold words of your post. Not necessarily in same order.
1- It is still discriminatory to have a rule against personal **choice on having or not having **something as personal as facial hair.
2- You mentioned that the rule may not even be found. Then essentially we can bunk all the arguments saying this man knowingly went to a school, or questioned school's position just to start a problem. Besides school had no right to have verdict in their favor if there was no rule existed like that. But off course this is not the only reason this freaky judge gave verdict as we all know by now.
3- I was waiting for this since the middle of this thread that somehow this discussion will go on to the style and size/length of beard.:)
1-2 day stubble can still look good if properly kept and shaped. The school if it had some respect for personal freedom had carefully reviewed the wish of the student and instead of making him go to get help from a biased judge, the matter could have been resolved by simply telling the man to properly groom his facial hair till he gets a full blown hairy beard. As a man you can imagine that I suppose. A good happy medium would have achieved this way.
4- You mentioned about lazy and sleepy. I must say this is true in terms of people/society expectation. Just as general example, one wakes up,..... picks up a razor/shaving machine, shaves his face, takes a shower, ..........goes to work or school.
Also one wakes up, .....picks up a scissor, trims facial hair, takes shower,....goes to work or school.
In both examples, the person is not lazy or sleepy looking.
Now, if you talk about one or two day" stubble", they can still look alright provided they are trimmed to certain shape or length.
Neither the judge:D nor school gave this man room to go for a happy medium.
Sorry, I just get amused whenever I think of this judge. A funny man indeed.
5- Let us talk about society's expectation.
A couple of years ago, a woman made a remark about a man (both not Muslims) who used to come and work with a facial look as if he had not shaved for two days saying,
"Oh it looks like he just rolled out of his bed and came to work!!!" :-)
It was very amusing and we all laughed. But it came to my mind that are we making fun of a guy who is brilliant in his work, always punctual and on top of that is very humble and nice to everyone? What right did we have to have fun at his expense? His facial hair and choice not to shave should not bother anyone at all.
6- Peshawar High court event you mentioned above and I ignored it simply because of these reasons:
a- It was an advise and not a ruling by the judge.
b- There was a clear, sensible reason given for this advice.
c- The judge did not act as a stupidly biased person!
Hence it does not relate to the content of this thread at all.