Cass
On Feb 13, 2008 7:42 AM, B. <docile_body at yahoo.com> wrote:
> [Personally wouldn't haven't minded this when/if I was
> single ... what a Hellish holiday it can be. - B.]
>
>
>
>
> http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/12/saudi.valentine/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
>
> Saudi Arabia bans all things red ahead of Valentine's
> Day
>
> (CNN) -- Saudi Arabia has asked florists and gift
> shops to remove all red items until after Valentine's
> Day, calling the celebration of such a holiday a sin,
> local media reported Monday.
>
> With a ban on red gift items over Valentine's Day in
> Saudi Arabia, a black market in red roses has
> flowered.
>
> "As Muslims we shouldn't celebrate a non-Muslim
> celebration, especially this one that encourages
> immoral relations between unmarried men and women,"
> Sheikh Khaled Al-Dossari, a scholar in Islamic
> studies, told the Saudi Gazette, an English-language
> newspaper.
>
> Every year, officials with the conservative Muslim
> kingdom's Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and
> Prevention of Vice clamp down on shops a few days
> before February 14, instructing them to remove red
> roses, red wrapping paper, gift boxes and teddy bears.
> On the eve of the holiday, they raid stores and seize
> symbols of love.
>
> The virtue and vice squad is a police force of several
> thousand charged with, among other things, enforcing
> dress codes and segregating the sexes. Saudi Arabia,
> which follows a strict interpretation of Islam called
> Wahhabism, punishes unrelated women and men who mingle
> in public.
>
> Ahmed Al-Omran, a university student in Riyadh, told
> CNN that the government decision will give the
> international media another reason to make fun of the
> Saudis "but I think that we got used to that by now."
>
> "I think what they are doing is ridiculous," said
> Al-Omran, who maintains the blog 'Saudi Jeans.' "What
> the conservatives in this country need to learn is
> something called 'tolerance.' If they don't see the
> permissibility of celebrating such an occasion, then
> fine -- they should not celebrate it. But they have to
> know they have no right to impose their point of view
> on others."
>
> Because of the ban on red roses, a black market has
> flowered ahead of Valentine's Day. Roses that normally
> go for five Saudi riyal ($1.30) fetch up to 30 riyal
> ($8) on February 14, the Saudi Gazette said.
>
> "Sometimes we deliver the bouquets in the middle of
> the night or early morning, to avoid suspicion," one
> florist told the paper.
> Saudi Arabia has often come under criticism for its
> treatment of women, most recently in a United Nations
> report that blasted the kingdom for widespread
> discrimination. Under Saudi law, women are subject to
> numerous restrictions, including a prohibition against
> driving and a requirement that they get a man's
> permission to travel or have surgery.
>
> A businesswoman told the Times of London this month
> that she was detained and strip-searched by the
> religious police for holding a meeting in a coffee
> shop with male colleagues.
>
> Two years ago, a teenager was raped by seven men who
> found her alone with a man unrelated to her. The
> government sentenced the 19-year-old woman to 200
> lashes and six months in prison for being in the
> company of a man who wasn't a family member or her
> husband. She was later pardoned. The seven rapists
> were sentenced to two to nine years in prison.
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