Another Freedom Cut Short

"I told my neighbors I was making money as a taxi driver," Youssef said, flashing a weak smile. "I don't want to lose my life."

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Throughout the year, Tobji has been an arena of sectarian violence marked by reprisal attacks between Sunni extremists and Mahdi Army militiamen. These days, the militia appears to be in control. During two visits over the past week, young civilian men clutching AK-47 assault rifles manned checkpoints in full view of Iraqi policemen passing through.

Other young men stood on street corners, clutching expensive Motorola walkie-talkies. Moqtada Sadr's face stared from billboards.

This protection, and the new edicts, have given Ali Abdul Latif the confidence not to fear Sunni extremists. He used to keep a wooden sign on his counter next to his clippers, hair creams and blades that read: "We don't do threads." Now the sign is gone, and Abdul Latif offers the thread to customers again.

But he can't carve sideburns or small goatees or gel floppy long hair. All that is considered Western, he and other barbers said. In the past week, Abdul Latif said, 15 youths have turned up at his shop, "all of them with hair down to the neck and shoulders." They wanted their hair short.

"They were scared. They didn't want to get noticed," he said.

On the streets of Tobji, they would have been, for the Sadrists consider themselves defenders of their faith. Abu Ahmed, the head of the local Sadr office, said he had placed "one or two men everywhere" -- at girls' schools, at the market, on the main streets -- to enforce the new edicts.

"Personal freedom is only in your house or property," said Abu Ahmed, who asked that his full name not be used. "In the streets, it is no longer a personal freedom."

Long hair, said Abu Ahmed, is banned because it makes men look feminine. Worse, he added, were haircuts that were long on the sides and short on top, because they were "Jewish haircuts."

"It is rejected in Islam that you imitate the Jews," Abu Ahmed said.

If someone is judged to have an improper hairstyle, he said, "we will take him to the barber and we'll ask the barber to cut his hair according to our regulations. If he refuses, we would send for his father or elder brother and tell them, 'Either you take this measure or we'll take the measure for you.' "

In the past week, he said, his men had ordered "five or six" men to get haircuts. They didn't object, he said.

Hussein was not one of them. He had cut his hair a few days before the Sadr office posted the fliers. He had seen people being beaten for having Western haircuts, he said.

"So I accepted readily to cut my hair, so I could be far away from any trouble for me and my family," Hussein said with a pained look, as he ran his fingers through his short hair.

"Perhaps, I thought, this trouble could cost me my life later."