Young Saudis have been buying red roses for Wednesday, February 14th Saint Valentine's day, exemplifying the younger generation's disregard for the official ban of the kingdom's religious authorities.
According to florists, the demand for red roses is so high that prices leapt from five to 12 Saudi riyals in only a few days. Al Watan newspaper reported that it was almost impossible to find red roses in cities across the kingdom. This growing demand came despite the fact that special anti-Valentine patrols have been organized by the religious police to prevent Saudi youth from celebrating what they consider self-indulgent Western customs.
Sheikh Abdelaziz al-Sheik, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, intervened in the past few years with a fatwa, religious edict, banning the celebration of Valentines Day. He described Valentine's Day as "the feast of the pagans" and said that "any Muslim who believes in Allah and in the Day of Judgment cannot celebrate this event." Local newspapers routinely reprint the fatwa every year on Valentine's Day to remind the faithful of the ban.
However, despite the restrictions, Valentine's Day has become more popular due to satellite TV, where holiday events are worked into television programming.
Sharp-eyed Saudi shoppers can find plenty of Valentine gifts: hearts that make kissing sounds and say "I love you" when squeezed, white teddy bears sitting on a red heart, lips touching, elaborate gift arrangements with "beating" hearts fitted with blinking lights and baskets of plastic red fruits.
According to press reports, on the night before Valentine's Day men and women stroll up and down the Tahliya upscale shopping avenue in the city of Jeddah, browsing at chocolate boxes and lingerie shop windows. According to Mohammed Nabil, a 25 year old Saudi shop owner, it is not uncommon to see a veiled woman in a traditional black robe dashing out of a gift shop with 150 blown-up red balloons, stuffing them in two cars and speeding away. He said, "I have customers that spend more than one thousand riyals (265 dollars), but they come in like burglars and we have to whisper to them that our Valentine's section is at the back to avoid being overheard by someone that would go and report us to the religious police."
