And where is the contradiction? In 1967, the People’s Republic of Albania formally became an atheist state. All religious buildings were nationalised and converted for other uses. More than two hundred clerics were imprisoned, with some being starved to death or executed. Beards were also prohibited. The predominant religion in Albania was Islam, with around two-thirds of the country adhering to some form of it. Since this required the wearing of a beard, banning facial hair was part and parcel of outlawing religion. Albania was also setting its face against the West, where the hippy movement had emerged in the 1960s. So banning beards was also part of the general ban on all things Western.