Mustache mandate

This passport photo belongs to someone regularly featured in this blog... but the face avec-moustache is almost unrecognizable to me. A friend (who lived in Turkey for a while) commented that ALL men had mustaches when this photo was taken because it was LAW that men sport caterpillars on their upper lips. (Can't remember if she was talking about Turkey or Iraq). Anyway, I looked it up and found a number of rather interesting articles:

• Does Saddam Impose a Mustache Mandate in Iraq?

This article was from 2003, but the adage "an eagle could land on his mustache" predates Saddam. I wonder if an eagle could land on the one in the photo and does that indicate that he would have been considered very impressive and manly then? I also am thinking of asking for the Arabic translation for cursing someone's mustache... and the threat to shave off someone's mustache with my shoe. This reminds me of the insulting necklace of shoes in Salman Rushdie's Shame.

The third article speaks of Turkey and the different varieties of mustaches.

• Moustaches under threat

Does the mustache in the picture suggest that its wearer was a right-wing nationalist at the time? Or is it not turned down enough at the corners... and does it droop enough over the lower lip to indicate an old-fashioned leftist? Clearly Dr. Z's goatee is sure sign of an intellectual. And I have discovered that although originally from London, my stepfather twirled and waxed a type labelled urban or "Istanbul style". For the most part, I am in favor of waxing most moustaches right off.