China court jails Uighur for growing beard

A court in China's mainly Muslim Xinjiang region has sentenced a man to six years in prison for "provoking trouble" and growing a beard, a practise discouraged by local authorities, a newspaper reported yesterday.

The court in the desert oasis city of Kashgar sentenced the 38-year-old Uighur to six years, while his wife was given a two-year sentence, according to the China Youth Daily.

For more than a year the authorities in Xinjiang have been campaigning against men growing beards -- a practice officials associate with extremist ideas.

A campaign dubbed "Project Beauty" also encourages women to leave their heads bare and abandon wearing the veil, a relatively widespread practice among the Uighurs -- the main Muslim ethnic group in Xinjiang.