The World
Seeing Red on Valentine's Day
The Valentine's Day contraband-"Today, Tomorrow, Forever, I Love You" teddy bears, along with such kitschy items as red mirrors and love candles-was stashed at the back of the "Don't Hesitate" gift shop in Jidda, Saudi Arabia. The subterfuge isn't optional. "The religious police will throw anyone selling anything red in jail," one of the shop's workers confided last week. "So we do it in secret."
Call it the war on Valentine's Day. Six years ago, Sheik Abdul Aziz al-Sheik, the kingdom's top religious authority, issued an edict against the holiday. Each year, a reminder of the fatwais printed in the country's newspapers, teachers warn their students against "worthless foreign customs," and the bearded morality police patrol the promenades for any sign of Valentine's Day paraphernalia.
Nevertheless, interest has grown, and red has simply gone underground as defiant young men and women furtively buy romantic gifts out the back doors of malls, markets, and corner shops. The phenomenon speaks to tension between the state's strict religious orthodoxy and Saudi youth-generally deeply devout but simultaneously influenced by what they see on the Internet and satellite TV. "It's just a fun thing to do,"said one young man shopping for valentines. "But I'm also a proud Muslim, and deep inside I feel guilty for participating in Valentine's Day. I would be very sad if everyone started doing it, but in truth everyone already is, including me."
With Benjamin Joffe-Walt in Saudi Arabia and Associated Press
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