Be mine Ayatollah!

February 13, 2003 8:06 PM

Something tells me that Iran's rulers don't like Valentine's Day It could be their ban of cards in Tehran. Their distake for western culture. Or the fact that Khomeini put the 'fatwa' on Rushdie on Valentine's Day 1989. All rational indications say that the current Ayatollah has no love for this holiday

Can a government that has to restrict their people from buying Valentine's Day cards last long before the people rise up to try to remove another oppressor?
posted by RobbieFal (17 comments total)

This sounds like the set-up to a really bad Disney movie.
posted by Stan Chin at 8:16 PM on February 13, 2003

Iran's goverment sucks. But so does Valentine's Day. Hopefully they'll destroy each other.
posted by lbergstr at 8:24 PM on February 13, 2003

How about a government that would urge its people to show some love by donating to a worthy cause and helping people, rather than pissing it away on cards and really bad chocolate? Just a thought.
posted by stonerose at 9:09 PM on February 13, 2003

Can a government that has to restrict their people from buying Valentine's Day cards last long before the people rise up to try to remove another oppressor?

Something tells me that RobbieFal really likes Valentine's Day.

To answer your question, yes, they can.
posted by toby\flat2 at 9:24 PM on February 13, 2003

Nah.. it's not the love of the holiday, but the absurdity of the repression.
posted by RobbieFal at 9:25 PM on February 13, 2003

Somehow I just can't picture Valentine's Day cards as the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back...
posted by thatweirdguy2 at 9:59 PM on February 13, 2003

Yes it can. For a long time. Love is not all you need for a revolution. Guns would help. Although grenades in the shape of hearts thrown at the mullahs might be good enough.
posted by ParisParamus at 10:14 PM on February 13, 2003

From government think tanks on the other side of the world:

The Singapore government, worried about a worsening baby shortage, has begun a campaign to encourage people to fall in love, marry and start families.

The monthlong Romancing Singapore campaign, run by government agencies and private businesses, is timed to coincide with Valentine's Day celebrations. It features dances, concerts, drive-in movies and other activities aimed at putting people 'in the right mood for love.'

The official matchmaking was touched off after the number of births in Singapore fell to a 14-year low of 40,800 in 2002.

(Agence France-Presse article from the NYT; reg. required.)
posted by lisa g at 10:15 PM on February 13, 2003

And why, exactly, should Shia imams love Saint Valentine's day?
posted by ptermit at 7:00 AM on February 14, 2003

thank you ptermit, you took the words right out of my mouth!
posted by Pollomacho at 7:21 AM on February 14, 2003

I know what RobbieFal's trying to say but the example is a crass one. I think the last thing Iranians need is a silly festival celebrating the West's idea of romantic love.
posted by Summer at 7:27 AM on February 14, 2003

It ain't just Shia imams, there were other reactions to St. Valentines around the world (last year but I'm pretty sure this year too).
posted by talos at 7:41 AM on February 14, 2003

I think the last thing Iranians need is a silly festival celebrating the West's idea of romantic love.

I agree that the Iranians don't NEED it. But they want it. And that should be enough.
posted by orange swan at 9:11 AM on February 14, 2003

After all, the Russians are getting into it. (NYT link)
posted by languagehat at 10:36 AM on February 14, 2003

It's a Christian saints day schlocked up with American made cards, figurines, stuffed animals and candies graphically depicting earthly items as symbols of a western belief of romantic love. What's not for a devout muslim to love about it? I mean its got it all, iconography, earthly images depicting divine properties, American sexual and consumerist values stemming from a Roman pagan festival devoted to the sex goddess, recognition and glorification of a Christian saint, boy what more could an anti-American, Muslim Theocracy (would that be a Allahcracy?) want in a holiday competing with the hadj?
posted by Pollomacho at 11:34 AM on February 14, 2003

Pollomacho: Now that you mention it, why aren't there stuffed hajj animals, little chocolate qaaba cubes, and adorable Mohammed-returning-to-Mecca Hummel figurines on QVC? (If you buy now, we'll throw in a "Recite! Recite!" archangel Gabriel collector's plate -- but hurry. This is a limited edition of 750,000.) Hmm... sounds like there's a vast untapped market out there.
posted by ptermit at 11:54 AM on February 14, 2003

Death sentence renewed on Rushdie
posted by homunculus at 11:21 PM on February 14, 2003