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February 14, 2005

Happy Valentine's Day -- NOT!!

Well, for most people around the world, today is Valentine's Day. But not here. Nope, it's a "Christian" holiday, and so it is banned. The Muttawa, members of the "Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" go so far as to arrest florists who sell red flowers today...

In spite of the ban, let me wish you all (especially my lovely wife) a Happy Valentine's Day! Don't tell the religious police I did though!

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1019616.cms

No red roses please, this is Saudi

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's morality police are on the scent of illicit red roses as part of a clampdown on would-be St Valentine's lovers in the strict Muslim kingdom.

The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Saudi Arabia's powerful religious vigilantes, have banned shops from selling any red flowers in the run-up to February 14.

Florists say the move is part of an annual campaign by the committee – whose members are known as mutawwaeen or volunteers -- to prevent Saudis marking a festival they believe flouts their austere doctrine of ‘Wahhabi’ Islam.

"They pass by two or three times a day to check we don't have any red flowers," said a Pakistani florist in Riyadh's smart Sulaimaniya district.

"Look, no red. I've taken them all out," he said pointing to a dazzling floral collection covering every colour of the rainbow except one.

Saudi Arabia's purist version of Islam recognises only two religious occasions a year -- the Muslim feasts after the fasting month of Ramadan and the Haj pilgrimage.

Celebration of the Islamic New Year or the Prophet Mohammad's birthday, common in other Muslim countries, is frowned upon in Saudi Arabia.
Valentine's Day, or the "Feast of Love" in Arabic, is beyond the pale in a country where women must cover themselves from head to toe in public and be accompanied by a male guardian.

"For the last week, we've had no red in the shop," said Ahmed, a flower shop manager. "You can't even have red cards."

Despite the prohibition, demand for the banned roses has been strong and unofficial business was booming, Ahmed said.

"Wait 10 minutes," he told one customer as an assistant slipped into the shadows to collect a bouquet of crimson flowers. At 10 riyals ($2.70) each they were double the usual price. "They would put us in prison for this," he smiled.

Another customer asked if he could deliver 30 red roses to Riyadh's diplomatic quarter, a potentially tricky mission which meant crossing a tight police security cordon. "No problem," Ahmed said. "That's the regular police, not the mutawwaeen ."

The government-funded mutawwaeen patrol the streets of Saudi Arabia, particularly Riyadh in the Wahhabi heartland, ensuring women are covered and five daily Muslim prayers are observed.

Shopkeepers who fail to shut down for half an hour during each prayer risk a night in jail if they are discovered.

Despite government calls for them to show greater leniency, and some recent efforts to improve their own image, the bearded volunteers are not universally popular.

"The mutawwaeen are just backward," Ahmed complained. "It's the Saudi women who want these roses anyway."

Here's what the Arab News says...

Source: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=58986&d=14&m=2&y=2005

Hearts & Flowers Find Few Takers

Maha Akeel, Ghada Aboud & Lulwa Shalhoub, Arab News

JEDDAH, 14 February 2005 — Red roses, teddy bears holding red hats and red cards with soft words about love are all signs that Valentine’s Day is here. For weeks, magazines and newspapers in the Kingdom have carried advertisements for stores selling certain “gifts” packaged and presented in ways that made them appropriate for Valentine’s Day. Of course, the advertising did not actually say so.

The idea has found fertile ground among teenagers, who look for gifts and red roses to exchange with each other. Some female students in schools tend to wear red sweaters over their uniforms or even red socks.

However, the religious authorities have warned the public against celebrating Valentine’s Day or selling gifts related to the holiday.

“A Muslim is prohibited from celebrating, approving or congratulating on this occasion,” said the ruling issued by the Fatwa Committee. Supporting others in celebrating the day by buying or selling Valentine’s items, presenting gifts or making festival food falls in the category of approval and is unacceptable.

A spokesman of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, meanwhile, denied that there was a ban on the sale of red roses. He said it was illogical to seize everything that is red.

“However, the commission advises people and might take action if anything attacking our religion happened,” he added.

“Valentine’s Day is not an abnormally busy day for us unlike other countries; it’s just another day. The demand for flowers is mostly during the two Islamic holidays and for special occasions like weddings,” stated several florists in Jeddah.

However, they all said that red roses are the most popular flowers, especially among young people, Valentine’s Day or not. “It’s the youth who celebrate Valentine’s Day mostly and you can’t really prevent them,” said one teenager.

Not only teens make arrangements for the day, but older people like to celebrate it with their families.

Omar, 38, marketing executive thought it a delightful thing to know that on one day the whole world is celebrating love. He saw no harm in it, especially at a time when many parts of the world have turned into war zones. “It is a relief to acknowledge love at least for one day.”

“The concept of Valentine’s Day encourages girls and boys to go out on dates and exchange gifts. It manipulates the feelings of our sons and daughters. It is unacceptable in our religion and culture,” said Khaled Hamad, a Saudi father.

“The idea of specifying a special day to celebrate love, any kind of love, is ridiculous. Do we love each other only once a year leaving 364 days bereft of love? Love and presents must be there always without specifying a special day to do so,” said Motaz Ahmad, a teacher.

An Islamic culture teacher said it was a copy of Western traditions and culture. “Schools must arrange awareness lectures to inform students about the history of this day and Islam’s opinion toward it.”

Sarah Mahmoud, a university student, commented that things that are banned are more desired. “To ban red roses and exchanging cards makes this event seem more attractive and only encourages young people to sneak around with red items.”

Sally, a 29-year-old housewife, thought that banning the celebration did not mean that the concept itself was forgotten. “Valentine’s is much more than the red color. I can be celebrating it with my close friends or my husband without using any red roses or red decorations.”

Disapproving of the celebration of Valentine’s Day is of course not confined just to Saudi Arabia or even to other Muslim countries. In India, community leaders have frequently spoken out against the holiday and Indians have sometimes destroyed cards and goods associated with the celebration.

“If Valentine’s Day causes so much unhappiness in the community here then people should respect the feelings of the local population and make remembrance of the holiday low key and private,” said Agnes Howell, a Western homemaker living in the Eastern Province. “However it is important to keep in mind that we are part of a global village and that respecting each other’s celebrations is essential too.”

With the terrible misery suffered every moment on this planet it seems that each of us should have more serious issues to focus energy on than the impact of a day filled with red flowers, teddy bears and boxes of chocolates.


And still more from CBS News...

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/13/world/main673722.shtml
Saudis Defy Valentine's Day Ban

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 13, 2005

(AP) The Saudi woman, swathed in black with only her eyes showing, circled a huge, red teddy bear, wondering if the plastic flowers stuck in the crook of its arm were too tacky.

She wanted this Valentine's Day to be perfect. She ordered 100 red roses to be delivered to her husband of a few weeks, bought him the largest-size bar of his favorite chocolate and planned to surprise him with a dinner party at her parents' house.

But there was one hitch: She had made the plans for Feb. 12, thinking that was the day the rest of the world marked Valentine's.

Her confusion was not a surprise in a country where Valentine's Day is prohibited and religious authorities confiscate red items from gift stores and call the occasion a Christian celebration true Muslims should shun. The woman, like others interviewed for this story, knew she was flirting with the law and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The kingdom's attitude toward Valentine's Day is in line with the strict school of Islam followed by the kingdom for a century. Like Valentine's Day, all Christian and even most Muslim feasts are banned in the kingdom, the birthplace of Islam, because they're considered an unorthodox creation Islam doesn't sanction.

Beyond the ban, it's a challenge for couples to be together on Valentine's or any other day because of strict segregation of the sexes. Dating consists of long phone conversations and the rare tryst. Men and women cannot go for a drive together, have a meal or talk on the street unless they are close relatives. Infractions are punished by detentions.

The muttawa, or religious police, mobilize a few days before Feb. 14, making the rounds of gift and flower shops. As Feb. 14 approaches, the flush of red fades.

Every heart, every rose and every item that's red or that suggests love and romance descends underground, to the black market, where its price triples and quadruples. Red flowers are hidden in back rooms.

Salesmen and waiters avoid wearing red; entrepreneurs whose stores maintain a red hue risk days in jail.

In religious lectures at schools, teachers and administrators warn students against marking the occasion, noting Saint Valentine was a Christian priest, according to an educational supervisor, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Saint Valentine is believed to have been a 3rd-century martyred Roman priest or bishop. Why the holiday became a celebration of lovers isn't clear, but the theories are it stemmed from his Feb. 14 feast date falling close to a pagan love festival or that it was because mid-February was seen in Europe as the time of year when birds start mating.

The supervisor said that on Valentine's Day last year girls lining up for daily morning prayer were inspected from head to toe by teachers looking for violations of rules that ban wearing or carrying any red item on the day.

Ribbons, boots, jackets, bags and pen holders with a hint, stripe or pattern in red, burgundy and hot pink were thrown into a heap, and the school called the girls' mothers to pick up the offensive items, the supervisor said.

Badr al-Buraidi, assistant to the head of the religious awareness department at a hospital, told Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper people have to be "persuaded that foreigners do not mark (Muslim feasts)."

"Why should we celebrate their feasts?" he was quoted as saying.

Despite the restrictions, Valentine's Day has caught on, partly due to satellite TV, where the occasion, like other holidays, is worked into the course of a series.

Shoppers who know where to look can find plenty of Valentine gifts: hearts that make kissing sounds and say "I love you" when squeezed, white teddy bears sitting on a red heart, lips touching, elaborate gift arrangements with "beating" hearts fitted with blinking lights and baskets of plastic red fruits.

Lingerie stores have rows of red, lacy lingerie, with one shop displaying a sheer negligee and the picture of a heart next to it.

In most cases, the gifts are not presented on Valentine's Day. A woman may not get permission from her parents to go out that night, and stores don't want to be saddled with the incriminating items when the muttawa begin making their rounds. Shops either deliver the gifts or call recipients a few days early and ask them to pick up their presents.

Asked how long he planned to keep the gift items on display, one salesman said: "Until there's a change in the situation," referring to a possible muttawa raid.

Restaurants also are warned against creating a Valentine's atmosphere. One waiter, looking at his red apron and red placement mats, said he worried what the muttawa's reaction would be if they dropped by on Valentine's.

At the store, the Saudi woman said that because she was aware of the difficulties, she had ordered the 100 roses a week in advance.

Asked if she still wanted to mark the occasion Feb. 12, she said: "Yes. I can't wait two more days."

Posted by djf on February 14, 2005 11:11 AM
Category: The Magical Kingdom
Comments

Happy Valentine's Day to you, too, Sweetums! I miss you! Love, Melody

Posted by: Melody on February 14, 2005 09:22 PM
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