Valentine’s Day, A Once-illicit Holiday Turns Popular in Saudi Arabia

By: IBRAHIM Jaafar

Hearts and flowers are everywhere as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia celebrates the once ‘haram’ Valentine’s on Friday 2020.

As recently as three years ago it would have been unthinkable — Saudi Arabia’s feared religious police saw to that.

Florists and confectioners used to hide their red roses and heart-shaped chocolate in fear of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CPVPV). Restaurant owners even banned birthday or anniversary celebrations on Feb. 14 for fear of arrest or closure.

Things changed when former Makkah CPVPV President Sheikh Ahmed Qasim Al-Ghamdi declared that Valentine’s Day did not contradict Islamic teaching or doctrine. Celebrating love was universal, and not limited to non-Muslims, he said...There by restricting the Committee of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. Saudis have increasingly embraced the celebration ever since.

Now Saudis are buying extravagant gifts, flowers, cheesy balloons and even the cliched teddy bears for that "special person".

There’s also a “his and her” gift guide for every purse, and info on the best places for that romantic meal for two.

The legalisation of the public celebration of Valentine’s Day – rooted in the Roman pagan festival celebrating and honouring fertility – comes amid the recent liberalisation of traditional social conventions within the kingdom and the reforms being carried out by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in order to “modernise” the country.

The blessed land of Saudi Arabia is now turning to a play ground for the infidels by the action of its custodians. This period is nothing but "A century of betrayal" to early generations of Muslims that defended the land by their blood.