Unkindest cut of all for Afghan barbers who give `Titanic' look

In Afghanistan the ruling Taliban has detained dozens of barbers for trimming the hair of young men in Kabul to look like Leonardo…

In Afghanistan the ruling Taliban has detained dozens of barbers for trimming the hair of young men in Kabul to look like Leonardo Di Caprio in the film Titanic, witnesses said.

The religious police, who enforce an interpretation of Islam that includes a ban on shaving, are not amused by the trend.

"We don't know for sure the precise number of the arrested people, but reportedly they exceed 30 and have been in the jail for over a week now for giving a Titanic hairstyle," said one barber, who declined to be identified.

The Titanic hairstyle leaves the fringe untrimmed and the back shortly cropped, emulating the film's star, Leonardo Di Caprio.

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"The religious police have warned us against the use of Titanic and other Western hair fashions," another barber said.

Three years after its release, the worldwide craze for the blockbuster has finally swept into Kabul, despite a Taliban ban on music, cinema and television.

The epic tale of love and disaster has captivated Afghans, who are seeking an escape from a Russian invasion in 1979 followed by civil war that has dragged on inconclusively for more than a decade.

The Titanic name is attached to anything an Afghan merchant can sell: cosmetics, clothes, footware, wedding cakes and vehicles.

Officials of the Taliban religious police, formally known as the Ministry of Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue, declined to comment, merely insisting that Afghans must not mimic Western ways.

The ministry acts directly under the order of the Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, an ascetic one-eyed religious figure who has never been photographed because pictures are also banned.