Valentine's Day Attempted Repression
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 4:38 PM

Looks like the annual attempt by some Hindu and Muslim groups to coerce others away from celebrating Valentine's Day hasn't had much success this year, at least in India. Police and rain played spoilers to the anti-festivity festivities.

Meanwhile, a Valentine's Day protest was scheduled for noon today in San Francisco, in opposition to higher fees for California state's medical marijuana id cards.

Two years ago in Vice Squad...

Three years ago in Vice Squad...

Labels: India, marijuana, Valentine's Day

 
Spreading Fellow Feeling Among Oft-Discordant Religions [Updated!]
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 11:31 PM

Ah, Valentine's Day. It has a way of bringing the world together, no? Take the case of hardline Muslims and hardline Hindus. These groups are sometimes not on good terms, to put it mildly. But this time of year they find themselves in accord, in their shared enmity towards celebrations of Valentine's Day. Here's a story on those Saudi religious police, the "Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice," and their efforts to suppress the color red in the days leading up to Valentine's Day. And here's a complementary tale from India, where the Bajrang Dal are one group supplying Hindu anti-V-day vigilantes.

In both India and Saudi Arabia, however, many folks find a way of avoiding the strictures of the virtue promoters.

This is the second year that Vice Squad has been able to note the concurrence between Hindu and Muslim activists on the inadvisability of other people's Valentine's Day celebrations.

Update, Valentine's Day: Another Hindu anti-V-day group, Shiv Sena, has taken to calling Valentine's Day "Prostitution Day."

Labels: India, Saudi Arabia, Valentine's Day

 
"Suggestions" Not to Celebrate Valentine's Day
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 1:14 PM

On February 2nd, Vice Squad noted the coercive tactics employed in Pune, India, to discourage celebrations of Valentine's Day. Such tactics are utilized much more widely, however. Reuters reports today on some similar Saudi coercion: "The kingdom, which implements a strict version of Islamic law, bans non-Muslim holidays and its morality police usually conduct raids to ensure shops do not sell gifts or ornaments on New Year, Christmas or Valentine's Day, which is named after a Christian saint."

Labels: Saudi Arabia, Valentine's Day

 
Social Persuasion versus Social Coercion: Valentine's Day Protests
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 4:03 PM

Vice Squad hero John Stuart Mill writes in On Liberty: "... the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinions of others, to do so would be wise, or even right. These are good reasons for remonstrating with him, or reasoning with him, or persuading him, or entreating him, but not for compelling him, or visiting him with any evil in case he do otherwise."

Valentine's Day is around the corner, and we know what that means: some places around the world are going to see anti-Valentine's Day protests. One such place, according to this article (registration required) in the Times of India, is Pune, India. "Heads of prominent educational institutions in Pune — including Symbiosis, Maharashtra institute of technology (MIT), Bharti Vidyapeeth, Indira institute and Cummins foundation — have joined hands with other city groups to oppose the Westernised celebration of Valentine’s Day in Pune."

But will these protests be of the persuasion variety or the compulsion variety? Looks like the latter to me...:

"At a press conference on Monday, the Pune cards and gifts association announced that this year, too, they would not stock any Valentine’s Day items for sale. In 1998, some card shops and florists had been attacked by right-wing organisations opposed to Valentine’s Day celebrations.

Since then, Pune shopkeepers have refrained from selling any V Day item out of fear of a similar backlash. 'We have stopped selling these items for the past three years as we feel that unpleasant incidents like forcing girls to accept Valentine’s Day cards or roses were happening,' Nitin Naik, vice-president of the association said." (How good of the association to worry about unpleasant incidents that happen to others. Surely this stance is unrelated to previous attacks on card shops?)

Labels: India, Mill, Valentine's Day