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RED ROSES LURK hidden in flower shop back rooms and heart-shaped chocolates are sold under the counter, but Saudis still manage to buy Valentine’s gifts and defy the religious police.
Florist Hussein came up with a simple solution to a ban on red tokens of love: he filled his window with white roses, orange irises and violet hydrangeas.
“I’ve hidden everything red in the shop, so when a religious police patrol comes along, they find nothing to complain about,” he said.
Anti-Valentine’s Day patrols by the Muttawa religious police, formally known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, started on Wednesday.
They began entering premises stocking chocolates, flowers and souvenirs to warn proprietors against selling anything red or heart-shaped and linked to the annual “infidel celebration” of matters romantic.
Saudi Arabia applies a rigorous interpretation of Islam under which the sexes are strictly segregated and any public display of affection is completely taboo.
It is also the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive.
Hussein’s shop window may be blooming with white, orange and violet, but he still has the real thing, red roses, out the back.
“I’ve sold at least 350 red roses at 20 riyals (€3.90) a pop,” he said.
Many women call us on the phone to order roses, because they fear the religious police.
Kumar, another florist, was persuaded by a Muttawa visit not even to consider flouting the Valentine’s Day ban, however.
“We’re going to sell these to a chocolate shop,” he said, pointing to bouquets of red flowers in a back room of his store.
Confectioners do have chocolate hearts for discreet sale, but only to the right people.
“Of course we have them, but the religious police came by and warned us against selling them,” said one chocolate shop owner who asked not to be identified.
“We hid them because we don’t want any problems,” he added, smiling, indicating that an illicit transaction involving the chocolate contraband would be more than acceptable.
It’s only chocolate!
In another shop in a commercial district of the capital, an Egyptian employee said the religious police had told them not to sell heart-shaped chocolate or sweets wrapped in red paper.
One man browsing in the shop was clearly unhappy: “Why are they forbidden? It’s only chocolate!” he complained.
Another customer, an older man, shot him a dark look.
Only a liberal fringe of Saudis actually celebrates Valentine’s Day in an ultra-conservative society in which clerics and their pronouncements are widely respected.
One of the most popular, Mohammed al-Oreifi, this year took to Twitter where he has hundreds of thousands of followers, decreeing that those in the kingdom who celebrate Valentine’s Day “want to copy the infidels”.
However, not everywhere in Saudi Arabia is the ban strictly enforced.
In the Red Sea port of Jeddah, the country’s commercial capital in the west, a more liberal attitude towards the lovers’ festival can be noted.
This year, some florists have been openly selling red roses, and are unafraid to give their names.
“The religious police didn’t come. We’re doing nothing wrong anyway,” said Abu Zakaria, who runs a flower shop in the north of the city.
Another man, Thamer Hussein, said some people with romantic yearnings marked the Valentine’s festival a day in advance, to ensure the experience was hassle-free.
“Some young people celebrated St Valentine’s Day on Wednesday evening, with small parties and exchanges of gifts,” he said.
In this way they managed to avoid the attentions of the Muttawa, who are expected to perform their duties religiously on Friday, ensuring that for unmarried couples a quick canoodle is definitely unacceptable.
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The Irish people need to show solidarity with the unions fighting to protest the wages and conditions of ordinary workers. However, the unions also need to broaden their outlook beyond their own sectional interests and demonstrate solidarity with the people.
The ESB unions had the ability to stop the imposition of the Home Tax robbery dead in its tracks this year by depriving the Revenue’s computers of the electricity they needed to implement the Troika’s bond holder tax. The An Post workers had the power to stop the delivery of the ECB’s extortion letters before they dropped through a single letterbox.
The unions and everybody else needs to wake up and start thinking in terms of ‘We’ rather than ‘I’. The country is being looted to pay for the failure of speculative financial capitalism and we won’t stop this until we stand together.
That’s an excellent statement coddler.
Are u serious coddler …. Really u think esb and the post office should have, in order to “prevent” the property tax not so the job they are paid to do
Well said Coddler
Do you really think the country is something we can just plug out and then plug back in? Property tax was going to hit us in some shape or form
Still bleating on I see Coddler. Jim Larkin would be proud of you
I’ll take that as a compliment Josh.
L-plate,
They call it a property tax but in reality it’s a tax on Irish peoples’ homes in order to pay for the failure speculative financial capitalism.
Unions care about themselves and to hell with everyone else- nothing we about unions
A home is a property you clown
@ Coddler
Thought you might
Well said Shane… honestly some people really need to get real and act like adults when posting comments. Coddler is the type of person that blames the world for their problems..
Great I’m coming home on the 17th for Christmas, reminds me why I left
Glad to read that hope is appearing in this dispute as it will save the customers and esb work force The over paid union leaders should have done more to steer the workers away from this threatened action in the first place.
We had no power for 6 days over Christmas 2010 & we didnt picket the ESB… Why should they hold the country to ransom over a pension? Many organisations have moved from DB to DC and many private sector workers dont even get a pension. Due to the size of the organisation a pension is guaranteed for them, which is a great benefit!
The chance of the esb workers pulling the plug over the christmas is non existant . The public opinion is so against them that they would be crucified if this happened. Imagine old people freezing in their house. Forget it ,it won’t happen a deal will be done
Will there light at the end of the tunnel?? .Will there be power for the people?? The workers in ESB would wanna be right wa&kers to feck up Xmas for the whole country.Its yer problems ye sort it out…Just leave the switch on for Xmas
pure shame on esb if they pull the plug
Well put coddler. More orchestrated strike actions required to put this government on its knees. They should be worried about what we might do next, not the other way around.
Go on strike for gods sake… Yere pensions will be worthless in a few years time anyway
Actually the pension is on target to break even in ten years. It’s just greed that makes them want the 1.6 billion hole filled now.
No it’s not the filling of the hole it’s the definition of the scheme DB or DC
It is obvious that IF that email is genuine it was not sent by the ESB but rather by the sinister careless unionised workers at ESB. I just want to make public that I have changed supplier, I am no longer a ESB customer and you know what? I’ve got better rates too, I know it won’t make a difference and I am still vulnerable to power cuts on the 16th, but at least I have the peace of mind that I will not contribute to the ESB workers wages and pension. Lets all change suppliers, that will show them!
Juan,
Unfortunately you should have checked the rates before you changed supplier… The fact is that suppliers charge you a higher ground rate that ESB even with lower unit rates you still will end up paying more… ha ha…
Also, regardless who your supplier is a portion will still go through ESB networks for the maintenance, repair and service of the networks.
So you loose……
This is all a perfect example of how greedy unions and their members are, they are an absolute disgrace
If they go on strike then everyone should stop paying their bills! Cancel your Direct Debits people.
No need to be insulting Max!
Not an insult at all but a simple reply to a simple comment!!
Ogle = Scargill
During the 1930′s the English based Trade Unions had a stranglehold on our workers and one the the greatest but unsung of our Trade Union leaders took them on. Jack Cassidy founded the National Engineering Union which is now swallowed up in the mess that our unions has become. My father was involved and Jack was often in our house I picked up a lot from him. The most important thing he said was that ‘If they go out the gate then I have failed’ He hated using the strike weapon and there is a lesson there for the ESB unions right now. If you go out that gate then your union leaders have failed you.
Just fire then all it really is that simple
How crazy a comment is that… maybe we could move Ireland a little further south and get some of the weather Spain gets… it is really that simple…….
There are quiet a number of comments with correct facts and there are quiet a few with incorrect information.
I am a full time ESB employee. I will not be drawn into a them and us debate nor will I try to patronise people with ideas of me living on the bread line.
My salary is approx 50K. I cannot apologise for this as I submitted an application form did an interview and the rest is history. We all make choices in life.
I really feel for people without work in this country and the leaders of the country do little to improve things but they pay the German piper without a thought.
It must be hard for people to see why there is a threat of strike but when there is the real possibility of nothing for you or your family on retirement. To be honest its hard to think of that day. But without a resolve it will happen.
I’m surprised that the Government haven’t stepped in to resolve this, being the owners of the company. Staff in general have no faith in senior management for what they have done to the ordinary workers and in a round about way the public.
We all really want a resolve ASAP because if the lights go out in the country then our lights will go out as well. Even ESB workers have families..
Why should the customers be in the dark because ESB workers are having problems with their pensions?The customers are paying already for their fat wages.
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