Saudi bans red roses for Valentines
Saudi Arabia's religious police have banned red roses ahead of Valentine's Day on February 14, pushing up the black market prices for the red flowers.
Mutawwa, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, on Sunday ordered florists and gift shop owners in the capital Riyadh to remove any items coloured scarlet, widely associated with romantic love.
Black market prices for roses have been already rising because of the ban, which has been regularly enforced in recent years.
Saudi authorities consider Valentine's Day as un-Islamic, primarily for encouraging relations between men and women outside wedlock, an act punishable by law in the conservative kingdom.
The kingdom's ban on roses appears to exclusively relate to the sale of flowers by florists and shop owners, and not wholesale flower sales to be used in the production of perfume in the kingdom.
How the ban relates to married couples in Saudi Arabia, Muslims or otherwise, giving each other roses or to the placement of flowers on Muslim graves in the kingdom, has not been elaborated by authorities.
3 comments:
Gays to face new clamp
By MOHAMMED AL A'ALI
A NATIONWIDE crackdown on homosexuals could be launched in Bahrain, including tougher immigration checks to stop foreign gays entering the country. It would include a study to determine how widespread homosexuality is in Bahrain.
Parliament's foreign affairs, defence and national security committee has already backed the
proposal, which would force the government to carry out the study.
The proposal was submitted by MPs belonging to the Al Menbar parliamentary bloc.
It is in response to what MPs see as Bahrain's growing gay problem and foreigners found to be gay face deportation, said committee secretary Jalal Fairooz.
He said the study was being carried out despite the fact that the Education Ministry claims there are no homosexuals in schools.
However, Mr Fairooz had no suggestions on how such a study could be carried out, saying it would be up to the government to decide.
"The Interior Ministry has told us that it already bans suspected homosexuals as they try entering the country from Bahrain International Airport," said committee secretary Jalal Fairooz.
However, he claimed the ministry said homosexuals pretend not to be gay by posing "manly" until they make it past immigration.
"They look manly as they come to the airport, but when they get in they return back to their unaccepted homosexual attitude," said Mr Fairooz.
"Homosexuals are found in huge numbers at hairdressing salons and beauty and massage spas, which the ministry regularly inspects."
However, he said many homosexuals were slipping through the net because the ministry was having problems determining if they were gay or not.
"Those who look homosexual or offer customers personal services are being caught by police and taken to the Public Prosecution," he said.
He described gays as "dangerous" and a "threat to our society and Islamic values".
"That's why the proposal asks the government to come up with a study on the problem and eliminate it before it increases and becomes hard to control, as more gays enter the country," he added.
MPs have approached the ministries of Information, Health and Industry and Commerce, along with the Labour Market Regulatory Authority, for their feedback.
However, they have said the issue was not in their remit.
The proposal will now be listed for discussion by parliament's general-secretariat.
sobra naman yan, ala na ba silang alam sa buhay nila kundi puro pagsikil sa kaligayahan ng mga taong umiibig? no wonder, over protected nga sila sa mga babae nila kulang na lang tusukin or bulagin ang mga mata ng mga lalaki dito sa Saudi para lang di makita yun mga bababe nila.
ay ang bad naman.. dami talagang restrrictions jan ano..
Post a Comment