CNN has the story.
The edict to ban Valentine’s Day is enforced by the Saudi Arabian “thought police.”
The virtue and vice squad is a police force of several thousand charged with, among other things, enforcing dress codes and segregating the sexes. Saudi Arabia, which follows a strict interpretation of Islam called Wahhabism, punishes unrelated women and men who mingle in public.
An example of the virtue and vice squad’s practices, from the above CNN article:
A businesswoman told the Times of London this month that she was detained and strip-searched by the religious police for holding a meeting in a coffee shop with male colleagues.
It sounds to me like the strip search was either a tool to humiliate the business woman or a justifiable way for the Saudi Arabian thought police to see naked female flesh. In either case, such an abuse of power is deplorable. What did they hope to find during a strip search?
Keep in mind these people are our close allies in the middle east. Isn’t (aren’t?) politics grand?
Guess which Middle Eastern country has the highest number of satellite service subscriptions to the Playboy Channel… *sniff… sniff* Ah yes, I had almost forgotten the pungent tang of hypocrisy.
While I don’t agree with their reasons, I’m all for banning Valentine’s Day.
I love you, Dez.
No. Seriously.