THIS is Mr Afghanistan, body-building champion and freak. They make women shroud themselves from head to toe but they let this guy put it all out?

Khosraw Basherir was pictured flexing his muscles after he was awarded top prize in the first Afghan body-building contest last weekend. One too many sunbed sessions have left him sporting a radioactive glow, or else he took the Ready Brek ads to heart.

Why would anyone want to look like this? Of course it's not about fame and fortune, it's the joy of winning and the fact that he can pick up weekend work as a human scarecrow. But is winning enough when you look as though you wear your veins on the outside?

What sort of a diet has he been on? Poor old Basherir seems to have been living on egg white omelettes.

Unlike his competitors, the 23-year old businessman from the Heart region has styled himself on Western body-builders and bleached his hair and oiled his skin.

His fellow Afghan bodybuilders may have been decked out in the traditional speedos but they stopped short on Californian glow.