Saudi Arabia: Valentine’s Day
I just love this photo, from today’s Al Watan
A Saudi man shows how members of the Saudi vice squad (Religious police) crush red roses with their feet as they enforce a law banning Valentine”s Day celebrations in the conservative kingdom at a flower shop in Riyadh. The Western version of Valentine”s Day ـ lovers raining flowers, chocolates and toys, all with a red theme, on each other ـ would be a challenge in Saudi Arabia at any time of the year. Strict Islamic religious rules keep men and women separate until they are married ـ and marriages are usually arranged by their families. There is no taking a girlfriend out to a coffee shop or restaurant: the cafes and restaurants all have separate sections, one for single men and the other for women and families. (AFP)
Last updated on Sunday 15/2/2009
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🙂 Great photo… What is it with the shoes in 2009?
Bu Yousef i must agree with you, shoes are the new “Power” or “Rebel” icon.
Nice post !
Yes yes! Let’s all stomp one of God’s most beautiful creations because its baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad (while the ugly one doing the stomping lives on….).
I think it is a posed photo, but what a hoot! The guy is demonstrating, not really stomping. And, if you look at the background, it looks a lot like a flower shop. Someone had a great sense of humor.
Sorry, intlxptr, but I cannot feel any sympathy for that. It actually reminds me of the pogroms against the Jews in Nazi Germany. These people are threatening those who they urgently need for running their society (e.g., Philippinos).
By the way, I didn’t know that Saudi Arabian men are wearing (brown) winter dishdashas. Maybe it had happened in Kuwait? (I am afraid, it _had_ happened a lot!) Remember, in 2005, a member of the ‘parliament’, Islamic fundamentalist Dr. Waleed Al Tabtabei, had disputed the need for more Christian churches in Kuwait since there are already 20 churches in the country, certainly enough for the 12 large Christian families among the Kuwaitis.
Hmmm, Fahad, there are so many kinds of blacks, and some of them are brown. I DO remember men in Riyadh wearing winter dishdashas. I can only say what Al Watan reports – the the photo, staged or no, is from Saudi Arabia. Have you read about the shake-up that happened early this week in Saudi Arabia? So while SA is loosening up a little, Kuwait appears to be tightening up, or so the legislators appear . . .
Guys he’s just trying to shape them into one single rose. Oh those crazy romantics…
I found it rather a poignant reading the Times of INDIA on V-day where they ran a piece aptly titled : “All religions are different but religious fundamentalists (of every denomination) are fundamentally the same.”
As for Saudi Arabia, civil society there needs concerted global help and sympathy not ridicule and scorn. It’s one sad place Saudi is.
We discussed this post in great detail in our English lit. class in Kuwait and the consensus was that the mad man(shown in the picture) was in fact, venting his fury at modernity and that the red roses were merely symbolic.
LLOOLLL, BoJacob
Valentino, I love your quote, and speaking only for my own country, I would have to agree. I had a big surprise living in Saudi Arabia, a wonderful surprise – I loved the women there. They were SMART, and they loved talking about their religion. They were horrified by the muttawa and called them ignorant, and they told me what a very good man their prophet Mohammed was, especially how he was respectful and kind and affectionate to women. Even women not related to him were allowed to talk with him and get his advice on things. Interesting, huh?
Jolanta Hamad Moshe – I think your English Lit teacher deserves a bouquet of roses for encouraging a discussion of this sort! Wooo HOOOO on him/her! And I would have loved to be a mouse in the corner to hear all the opinions, and how they were defended. Thank you, thank you for letting me know. 🙂
Jolanta,
“mad man(shown in the picture) was in fact, venting his fury at modernity”
Valentine’s is ‘modern’?
I would think a car is modern. If your class proved this man still used camels to travel and refused to use cars, then that might be the case that he is furious at modernity. Besides, not all ‘modern’ is good.
You might be right, nbq . . . but who draws that line?
Do you drive a car?
Do you have a television in your house? Cable? Internet? 😉
Do you believe women should be educated?
Should women be able to have their own bank accounts and manage their own finances? Manage their own businesses?
Do you hunt your own food or buy from the supermarket?
WHO decides which “modern” practices are acceptable?
@intlxpatr:
I’m not sure I get it.
What are you saying here?
That you (intlxpatr) couldn’t arrive at a proper point of reference or source for deciding, therefore the rest of the world shouldn’t bother?
@intlxpatr:
I just noticed your comment about the Prophet: “Even women not related to him were allowed to talk with him and get his advice on things. Interesting, huh?”
Ummmm.. Duhh?!!
However, extracting verdicts (fatwas) from the fact above and applying it to our situation today is not a light endeavor and can only be done right by qualified professionals (qualified scholars). This is because the circumstances and situation needs to be looked at first before arriving at a general conclusion.
I’m not making a judgment for or against here; I’m just commenting on the simplistic approach of expressing an Islamic ‘verdict’ based on a single report “Even women not related to him were allowed to….” (regardless of what comes after ‘to’) and then using that to debate/refute verdicts issued by more qualified personnel. Very very dangerous approach that has dire consequences.
As for “and they told me what a very good man their prophet Mohammed was, especially how he was respectful and kind and affectionate to women”
What does that have to do with what exactly? And what are you trying to extract from this? It all depends on the situation and the circumstance. He also had a women stoned to death for adultery. Does that change your view? It shouldn’t. Each circumstance has its proper action.
Two separate things, nbq. First issue, the issue the whole valentine’s day articles were intended to address: Who decides what is a traditional Kuwaiti value, and what is immoral? I think you could defend an argument that says women need to be dressed modestly, for example, but, in my humble opinion, mandating abayas would be excessive in Kuwait. Mandating head covering would be excessive.
You brought up the issue of modernity, and that Valentine’s day is not modern, but not all things modern are good. I agree. I also believe that not all things traditional are good – stoning women for adultery, for example. Unequal justice for men and women, for example. Women as property, for example.
I take your point on the simplistic approach to events reported in the life of the prophet. Our churches, too, have often told us that it takes learned scholars to rightly interpret what things are supposed to mean, and that we could be condemned to hell for taking it upon ourselves and our limited understanding to try to interpret events and parables.
What a joke!!!
I find there’s something vaguely erotic about Saudi mutawa and red roses.
Um Yousef – I think it WAS a joke, the staged photo. 🙂
Ha ha ha, Oh-la-la, I recognize your “voice”.