To Valen-Ban or Not

Just read more about the Kingdom’s Valen-Ban this year. The mutawaa will be out watching for and removing every red heart, red ballon, red flower, and of course any colored cupid, dove or teddy bear. Very sad but also not likely to be a successful enterprise in the rest of the Arabian Peninsula where these are available any time of the year! Floral shops are full of these items year round!


To be honest I’ve never been a real big fan of Valentine’s Day. From my brief study of history, I think it’s only a greeting card holiday. Americans have made into a friendship holiday which is sweet, I think. Anyway, if it lost its luster in the U.S., my sister-in-law would be put out since she got engaged on that day!

So while I'm not a fan of Valentine's Day, I am even less of a fan of bans. They only encourage doing the forbidden – and one sees much like what the Arabic expression describes, everything that is forbidden is desired. It rhymes in Arabic, I believe. Anyway, I’ll be curious to learn if any bloggers write about how some "broke the ban."