February 14th – a day celebrated mainly by lovers all over the world, the atmosphere on this day is usually charged with love, as most lovers look forward to spending intimate time with their partners and receiving gifts or even love letters.
However, there are some countries around the world where lovers are forbidden to celebrate the day for certain reasons.
Below are SIX of them:
IRAN
In 2010, the Islamic Republic officially banned Valentine’s Day. The government decided that Valentine’s Day is a decadent celebration of love that promotes “degenerate” Western culture and illegitimate relationships.
It is actually so serious that the production of all Valentine’s Day gifts and items was also prohibited by the government.
Unmarried couples are forbidden to mingle with each other.
UZBEKISTAN
This Islamic country was actually tolerant of this celebration until 2012 when the Ministry of Education’s Department of Enlightenment and the Promotion of Values decided to ban it.
While it is not illegal to celebrate valentine’s Day in Uzbekistan, it is strongly discouraged, and the people are advised to celebrate the birthday of an Uzbekistan hero – Babur in place of Valentine.
SAUDI ARABIA
Is another Islamic country where valentine’s day celebration was frowned upon years ago. It was said that most of the practices on valentine’s day were against the country’s ideologies and even shops were banned from selling Valentine’s Day-related items.
PAKISTAN
In Pakistan, valentine’s day is seen as against the teachings of Islam, hence celebrations are banned. The ban was introduced by Islamabad High Court in 2018 after a petition by a citizen who said Valentine’s Day was a cultural import from the West and “against the teachings of Islam.
MALAYSIA
In 2005, Islamic authorities decided that there will be no more celebration of Valentine’s Day. In a bid to enforce this, a fatwa was issued prohibiting the celebration of Valentine’s Day.
The reason for this is that the authorities claimed February 14 has been used as a gateway to disaster and moral decay among young people.
INDIA
Due 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.”
From the reasons given for the ban of Valentines day celebration all points to the countries fear of promoting the western values and culture in their country.
Meanwhile, Nigeria seems to be leading as a data report from Google shows that Nigeria is currently the top country searching for love in 2023 and since 2004 has been the country searching the most for dating apps worldwide.
In the past week Google said the search for the origin of Valentine also increased by 200%. The data also shows that searches for Valentine messages for boyfriend had risen by 300% in the past week, and Valentine hairstyle also surged by 250% over the same period.
Also, Best dating app in the world rose by 250%, while Valentine’s gift ideas and Best Valentine’s gift for girlfriend both increased by 120%.
