Watch: Soccer game in Saudi Arabia is stopped because players' haircuts contradict Sharia
During the Friday encounter between the teams of Ahad and al-Bathin, the referee stopped the match and took the three players aside, where he fixed their Mohawk haircuts.
By MAAYAN GROISMANUpdated: APRIL 11, 2016 13:40Soccer match stopped in the middle because of player haircut
A soccer match in the first Saudi professional Football League was stopped in the middle by the referee to fix the haircut of three players, whose haircut was not in accordance with Sharia law.During the Friday encounter between the teams of Ahad and al-Bathin, the referee stopped the match and took the three players aside, where he fixed their Mohawk haircuts, in front of the eyes of the crowd that attended the match. After the players got their new haircut, the match was renewed, about an hour after it was paused.The Mohawk hairstyle is defined as a "heretic hairstyle" in the Saudi Kingdom specifically and in Arab states generally. According to an Islamic fatwa, a person who cuts one part of his hair but leaves the other part of it untouched is someone with a Mohawk hairstyle. The fatwa rules that such a person must either cut all his hair or leave all his hair untouched.The referee in the aforementioned match stopped the game based on new instructions of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation which entered into force on Thursday. According to these instructions, referees ought to fight the "heretic haircut" by banning players with such hairstyles from participating in soccer matches.These Sharia-based instructions were already implemented in Saudi Arabia a few years ago, and led many referees to stop soccer matches in order to fix the haircut of a rebellious player.