Maulvis

Many of the images, however, still appeared to be up when the inspectors returned earlier this week, accompanied by the BBC.

Despite being the youngest in the group, a round-faced and bespectacled 25-year-old former madrassa student, Maulvi Mahmoud Fatih, led the way.

Addressing a crowd of male shopkeepers and bystanders that had been rustled up, he delivered a lecture on the importance of saying your prayers and growing a beard.

He spoke in the spirit of brotherly advice: “Keeping the beard is following the example of the Prophet Muhammad,” he said, adding with a chuckle, that it has other “benefits” too.

“These clerics have two or three wives,” he says, gesturing to his fellow inspectors. “It’s a source of power.”…

Earlier this month, it issued an edict that all women should wear a face veil in public. Any woman repeatedly not complying could see their male relative jailed or sent to court….

A small printout, stuck to a pillar by a staircase in the mall has two images illustrating how women should now dress – one is an all-encompassing blue burka, the other is a similar black outfit.

“Muslim women should follow the Islamic veil, this is the order of Sharia,” reads the text….