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Seven Countries Where Valentine’s Day Is Not Celebrated

Published

1 year ago

February 14, 2023

Editor

Valentine’s Day, also called Saint Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honouring a martyr named Valentine. Through later folk traditions, it has become a significant cultural and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world.

The eighth-century Gelasian Sacramentary recorded the celebration of the Feast of Saint Valentine on February 14. The day became associated with romantic love in the 14th and 15th centuries when notions of courtly love flourished, apparently by association with the “lovebirds” of early spring.

Although Valentine’s Day is not a public holiday, February 14 is considered a significant cultural and religious celebration of romance in the Catholic Church. On the other hand, a number of Eastern countries choose not to celebrate Valentine’s Day, even in a commercial way.

Despite its popularity in countries all over the world, there are some countries where Valentine’s Day is not celebrated, most of them owing to religious beliefs.

Here are seven countries where Valentine’s Day is not celebrated as compiled by The PUNCH:

Malaysia

Valentine’s Day goes against Islamic Law, and with 61 per cent of the Malaysian population being Muslims, celebration has been banned in the country.

Islamic authorities in Malaysia created the religious ruling of fatwa, banning the celebrating of Valentine’s Day since 2005.

In 2011, the Islamic morality police, Jais, arrested 80 Muslim couples for celebrating the Valentine’s Day. Officers raided numerous hotels in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, starting an anti-Valentine’s Day campaign and raids, according to a Wedded Wonderland report.

Indonesia

Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population, is a secular nation. This means that the government says it is neutral and neither supports nor disagrees with religion, according to a BBC report.

However, in the province of Aceh, the only place with Islamic rule, Valentine’s celebrations are banned as is the sale of gifts.

There have been numerous protests in recent years, stating that Valentine’s Day promotes casual pre-marital sex and the consumption of alcohol, both of which are strictly against Islamic Law.

Muslim clerics have ordered couples and singles not to exchange cards, roses or engage in illicit behaviour.

Despite this, Valentine’s Day is popular in Jakarta, with companies looking to cash in on the celebrations.

Iran

In recent years, Iranian authorities have aimed to forbid Valentine’s Day celebrations, calling the holiday a “decadent Western custom” and threatening shops and restaurants with prosecution if they sell Valentine’s Day gifts.

Despite this, numerous restaurants in Tehran have reportedly been fully booked and many shops have been seen selling teddy bears and chocolates. Due to the fact that they are defying the law, establishments use lookouts to see if inspectors are on a Valentine’s Day patrol, Wedded Wonderland says.

India

Owing to its independent revolution from the British empire in 1947, the Indian government refused to advocate Western values and culture.

In 2015, party leader Chandra Prakash Kaushik told The Times of India “We are not against love, but if a couple is in love then they must get married … if they are not certain, they should not belittle love by openly going around together.”

Pakistan

Pakistan has been subject to numerous riots surrounding the celebration of Valentine’s Day. In 2014, two universities in Peshawar and Pakistan clashed with each other’s beliefs over the ideology of Valentine’s Day in the eyes of Islamic Law.

Students threw rocks at one another, which eventually led to gunshots being fired from both sides, injuring three students, according to Wedded Wonderland.

On February 7, 2018, the Islamabad High Court placed a ban on Valentine’s Day, claiming the day to be a cultural import from the West and “against the teachings of Islam”.

Saudi Arabia

In Saudi Arabia, it is taboo to show public displays of affection so the concept of Valentine’s Day doesn’t coincide with the ideologies of the country.

Celebrating Valentine’s Day could lead to severe punishment in Saudi Arabia. In 2014, five Saudi citizens were sentenced to 39 years in prison and 4,500 lashes of the cane between them, after they were found dancing with six women they were not married to on Valentine’s Day, a report by Wedded Wonderland, says.

While you can purchase love-themed gifts on any other day, red roses and other love-related items are strictly banned on Valentine’s Day, including red clothing.

Russia

Technically, Russia does celebrate a type of Valentine’s Day, but it is very different from the traditional holiday. On March 8, Russians celebrate International Women’s Day in much the same way that Western cultures celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Gifting each other flowers and chocolate is very common on this day, as is expecting husbands and boyfriends to do all the cooking and cleaning, letting women have a full day of rest.

Instead of celebrating Valentine’s Day because of a saint, Russia chooses to celebrate the love for their women, paying tribute to women across the globe and equal rights, according to Wedded Wonderland’s report.
PUNCH

Headline

Iran Hangs 53-year-old Woman, Six Others

Published

19 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Editor

Iran on Saturday hanged at least seven people, including two women, while a member of its Jewish minority is at imminent risk of execution as the Islamic Republic further intensified its use of capital punishment, an NGO said.

Parvin Mousavi, 53, a mother of two grown-up children, was hanged in Urmia prison in northwestern Iran along with five men convicted in various drug-related cases, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) said in a statement.

In Nishapur in eastern Iran, a 27-year-old woman named Fatemeh Abdullahi was hanged on charges of murdering her husband, who was also her cousin, it said.

IHR says it has tallied at least 223 executions this year, with at least 50 so far in May alone. A new surge began following the end of Persian New Year and Ramadan holidays in April, with 115 people including six women hanged since then, it said.

Iran carries out more recorded executions of women than any other country. Activists say many such convicts are victims of forced or abusive marriages.

Iran last year carried out more hangings than in any year since 2015, according to NGOs, which accuse the Islamic republic of using capital punishment as a means to instill fear in the wake of protests that erupted in autumn 2022.

“The silence of the international community is unacceptable,” IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam told AFP.

“Those executed belong to the poor and marginalised groups of Iranian society and didn’t have fair trials with due process.”

‘Killing machine’

IHR said Mousavi had been in prison for four years. It cited a source as saying she had been paid the equivalent of 15 euros to carry a package she had been told contained medicine but was in fact five kilos of morphine.

“They are the low-cost victims of the Islamic Republic’s killing machine, which aims at instilling fear among people to prevent new protests,” added Amiry-Moghaddam.

The group meanwhile said a member of Iran’s Jewish community, which has drastically reduced in numbers in recent years but is still the largest in the Middle East outside Israel, was at imminent risk of execution over a murder charge.

Arvin Ghahremani, 20, was convicted of murder during a street fight when he was 18 and is scheduled to be executed in the western city of Kermanshah on Monday, it said, adding it had received an audio message from his mother Sonia Saadati asking for his life to be spared.

His family is seeking to ask the family of the victim to forgo the execution in line with Iran’s Islamic law of retribution, or qesas.

Also at risk of execution is Kamran Sheikheh, the last surviving member of a group of seven Iranian Kurdish men who were first arrested between early December 2009 and late January 2010 and later sentenced to death for “corruption on earth” over alleged membership of extremist groups, it said.

Six men convicted in the same case have been executed in the last months almost one-and-a-half decades after their initial arrest, the last being Khosro Besharat who was hanged in Ghezel Hesar prison outside Tehran this week.

There has been an international outcry meanwhile over the death sentence handed out last month to Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, seen by activists as retaliation for his music backing the 2022 protests. His lawyers are appealing the verdict.

AFP

Headline

Israeli Leaders Disagree Over Post-war Gaza Governance Amid US Pressure

Published

20 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Editor

New divisions have emerged among Israel’s leaders over post-war Gaza’s governance, with an unexpected Hamas fightback in parts of the Palestinian territory piling pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli army has been battling Hamas militants across Gaza for more than seven months while also exchanging near-daily fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah forces along the northern border with Lebanon.

But after Hamas fighters regrouped in northern Gaza, where Israel previously said the group had been neutralised, broad splits emerged in the Israeli war cabinet in recent days.

Netanyahu came under personal attack from Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for failing to rule out an Israeli government in Gaza after the war.

The Israeli premier’s outright rejection of post-war Palestinian leadership in Gaza has broken a rift among top politicians wide open and frustrated relations with top ally the United States.

Experts say the lack of clarity only serves to benefit Hamas, whose leader has insisted no new authority can be established in the territory without its involvement.

“Without an alternative to fill the vacuum, Hamas will continue to grow,” International Crisis Group analyst Mairav Zonszein told AFP.

Emmanuel Navon, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University, echoed this sentiment.

“If only Hamas is left in Gaza, of course they are going to appear here and there and the Israeli army will be forced to chase them around,” said Navon.

“Either you establish an Israeli military government or an Arab-led government.”

US pressure

Gallant said in a televised address on Wednesday: “I call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a decision and declare that Israel will not establish civilian control over the Gaza strip.”

The premier’s war planning also came under recent attack by army chief Herzi Halevi as well as top Shin Bet security agency officials, according to Israeli media reports.

Netanyahu is also under pressure from Washington to swiftly bring an end to the conflict and avoid being mired in a long counterinsurgency campaign.

Washington has previously called for a “revitalised” form of the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza after the war.

But Netanyahu has rejected any role for the PA in post-war Gaza, saying Thursday that it “supports terror, educates terror, finances terror”.

Instead, Netanyahu has clung to his steadfast aim of “eliminating” Hamas, asserting that “there’s no alternative to military victory”.

Experts say confidence in Netanyahu is running thin.

“With Gallant’s criticism of Netanyahu’s failure to plan for the day after in terms of governing Gaza, some real fissures are beginning to emerge in the Israeli war cabinet,” Colin P. Clarke, director of policy and research at the Soufan Group think tank, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“I’m not sure I know of many people, including the most ardent Israel supporters, who have confidence in Bibi,” he said, using Netanyahu’s nickname.

Hostage ‘impasse’

The Gaza war broke out after Hamas’s attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

The militants also seized about 250 hostages, 125 of whom Israel estimates remain in Gaza, including 37 the military says are dead.

Israel’s military retaliation has killed at least 35,386 people, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry, and an Israeli siege has brought dire food shortages and the threat of famine.

Many Israelis supported Netanyahu’s blunt goals to seek revenge on Hamas in the aftermath of the October 7 attack.

But now, hopes have faded for the return of the hostages and patience in Netanyahu may be running out, experts said.

On Friday, the army announced it had recovered bodies of three hostages who were killed during the October 7 attack.

After Israeli forces entered the far southern city of Rafah, where more than a million displaced Gazans were sheltering, talks mediated by Egypt, the United States and Qatar to release the hostages have ground to a standstill.

“The hostage deal is at a total impasse — you can no longer provide the appearance of progress,” said Zonszein of the International Crisis Group.

“Plus the breakdown with the US and the fact that Egypt has refused to pass aid through Rafah — all those things are coming to a head.”

Headline

Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger Finalise Regional Alliance Project

Published

23 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Editor

Junta-run Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have finalised plans to form a confederation after turning their backs on former colonial ruler France to seek closer ties with Russia.

Their foreign ministers met Friday in Niger’s capital Niamey to agree on a text establishing the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).

“The objective was to finalise the draft text relating to the institutionalisation and operationalisation of the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES)”, said Niger Foreign Minister Bakary Yaou Sangare as he read the final statement late Friday.

He said the text would be adopted by the heads of state of the three countries at a summit, without specifying the date.

“We can consider very clearly, today, that the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) has been born,” Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said after meeting General Abdourahamane Tiani, the head of Nigerien military regime.

The third foreign minister at the meeting was Burkina Faso’s Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore.

The Sahel region has been subject to deadly jihadist violence for years, which they accused France of not being able to curb.

The three countries said late January they were quitting The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which they said was under French influence, to create their own regional grouping.

AFP