Mustaches are fine, right? Like having a mustache, not having a mustache – no one really thinks about this in a lot of detail. Not usually, at least. Which is why the following case of a man getting fired from a school over his mustache makes zero sense.

Meet Haseeb Ali Chishti

Haseeb is a teacher who has worked in schools all over Islamabad for a while, now

However, in an odd turn of events, he was recently let go over his facial hair. Therefore, he called out the Institute in the following Facebook post:

Being told 'your moustache gives liberal ideas to students' and 'you're a young, handsome man… it will distract our… Posted by Haseeb Ali Chishti on Dienstag, 29. August 2017

The entire incident is definitely pretty strange. Firstly, what is the definition of “liberal ideas” and why exactly are they considered to be detrimental to students? Secondly, what connection does a mustache have to these liberal ideas? I mean, it’s just facial hair. Lastly, why has a mustache been hypersexualized to the point that a man lost his job?

As expected, people chimed in with their support

Some called the entire incident a ‘case of weird jealousy’

Others called it discrimination and were livid at the entire incident

Some even called out the particular school in question

Others were just plain shocked at the fact that a man lost his job due to the school’s absurd mentality

People on other social media platforms spoke up for Haseeb as well

A very good friend got laid off from job because of his mustache. Where is Pakistan going? Unreal. pic.twitter.com/RZgu9dQTMF — Osama Bin Liaqat Mir (@oblmir) August 30, 2017

Others shared similar instances

That's not a new story, our class peon was kicked out of his job because he made a dub on an indian song and it got viral.. — Kalsoom Bukhari (@kalsoombukharii) August 31, 2017

While others talked about how our environment is becoming perverted

Our environment has become so perverted. Being good looking is a problem because ofcourse, all our competency lies in our faces and features — Khowla (@Khowlaintj) August 30, 2017

Could it be that the school already has a policy against teachers keeping facial hair?

It could certainly be the case, however, Haseeb wasn’t informed of any such policy at the time of his firing and the reasons given are rather shallow, to be very frank.

The entire incident really makes you want to take a step back and wonder where we’re headed. Are we really about to start firing people left, right and center based on how they look? Or how big or small their mustache is? (I felt ridiculous simply typing that.) It’s pretty unfortunate that we’re now linking facial hair to “liberal ideas” and basing occupational activities on looks rather than merit.

What do you think about this mustache fiasco? Let us know in the comments.

Cover image shared by Haseeb Ali Chishti