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Valentine’s Day Celebrations Banned All Across Pakistan: IHC

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Valentine's day is Haraam.
Its full of immorality, getting a girlfriend, full of nonsense.

Your views are respected and you are free to do whatever you want to do on V Day.

Now please let others want to to day whatever they want unless it is interfering your personal life
 
http://www.dawn.com/news/1314558/at-pakistani-universities-fear-rules-supreme-on-valentines-day

At Pakistani universities, fear rules supreme on Valentine's Day
It wasn't always the case, but celebrating Valentine's Day on campus is now an act of defiance.

IMRAN GABOL | SHIZA MALIK
In the free-thinking 1970s, a rule endorsed by Karachi University’s (KU) then vice-chancellor, requiring girls and boys to sit three feet apart on campus, earned him plenty of scorn and ridicule. At the time, most students defied the decree openly and several chose to make a mockery of it by bringing a tailor’s yardstick to school in a dramatic attempt to measure distance.

When right-wing groups like the Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) indulged in moral policing, a majority of the student body resisted and male and female students continued to mix openly.

Things are very different today. The KU campus – like many others across the country – is visibly more conservative. And the conservatism is more pronounced than ever on Valentine’s Day.

Header: A Pakistan Ministry of Tourism bus takes western travellers on a sight-seeing ride in Karachi (1974). The slogan on the bus reads, "Enjoy the love".

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Demonstrators hold posters as they take part in a protest against Valentine's Day in Karachi. —AFP


Outfits of resistance
At several public universities in the country, wearing red on campus is unacceptable on February 14.

“Even if you and your male friend are accidentally seen wearing the same colour – not necessarily red – you are in hot water,” a student currently enrolled at KU shares on condition of anonymity.

Owing to this stress, she, like some of her friends, plans to skip university today.


"Teachers used to check bags for Valentine’s Day presents so girls would stand outside the school stuffing their faces with chocolate they had received as presents."


At the University of Peshawar (UoP), there is a similar sense of fear among women on campus. “Most girls will stay at home on Tuesday and those who attend will ensure that they do not wear anything red,” says journalism student Mamoona Akhtar.

Students recall how, two years earlier, a violent clash erupted on Valentine’s Day when students wearing red clothing were attacked.

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Police collect evidence and speak to witnesses at a hostel after it was burnt during a clash at the University of Peshawar on Feb 14, 2014. — Reuters


The UoP student body president, who goes by the name ‘Royal Shakir’, describes the clash between the IJT and Pakhtun Student Federation (PSF). “Shots were fired and later they set each other’s hostel rooms on fire.”

Shakir is affiliated with the left-leaning PSF. Like most days, he is wearing a bright red shawl over his light blue shalwar kameez and matching red sneakers. On his head is a red beret with a communist five-pointed star and in his hands, is a shiny red baton. Unlike him, most students will be very conscious of their dress code come February 14.

Shakir insists that he does not care for Valentine’s Day personally, but will be at the forefront, “defending the right of other students to celebrate it”.

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'Royal Shakir,' a member of the left-leaning PSF at the University of Peshawar. — Sara Khan


Thorns and roses
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A 2014 'Haya Day' rally at University of Peshawar. — Reuters
To oppose what it deems is out of place in our culture, the IJT will be observing 'Haya (Modesty) Day'.

At Punjab University (PU), IJT representatives started distributing pamphlets for the counter event days in advance.

As the ideologies battle, Haya Day has been an annual event at campuses across Pakistan in the recent past. Every year, IJT activists hold rallies and discourage any Valentine's Day celebrations.

One student recalls how the right-wing group went as far as stopping students from presenting bouquets of flowers to guests speaking at a university event, which happened to fall on Valentines Day last year.

Three students bringing flowers for the guests were stopped by IJT activists at the gate. All attempts to reason with them were futile, claims one of the students, Hossain Raza.

“They did not listen. They snatched the bouquets and hurled threats of dire consequences [at us],” Raza adds.

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A sign instructing students to "Display Decent Behavior" is seen at the University of Peshawar. — Sara Khan


Another student, Sana Naqvi, says that members of the IJT Women’s Wing begin visiting women’s hostels in the run up to Feb 14, warning them against ‘immoral’ Valentine’s Day activities. “If anyone resists their ideology they get thrashed,” she says, adding that the university administration turns a blind eye to such incidents.

Nazim Furqan Khalil, a member of Punjab University IJT, however, denies the allegation of activists thrashing students or stopping others from celebrating the event.

“Valentine’s Day does not match our culture and social norms,” he says. “We [instead observe] Haya Day all over the country and organise walks, rallies and seminars for awareness,” he adds.

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Students play football at the green University of Peshawar campus. — Sara Khan


Point of contention
Naeem Khan, the PU’s registrar, tells Dawn that there is no restriction over Valentine’s Day celebration on the campus. Khan is of the view that the Pakistani society has different hues “like a rainbow” and it reflects among students. “We can find students of different ideologies at the campus,” he says, attempting to explain the friction.


A member of Punjab University IJT denies the allegation of activists thrashing students or stopping others from celebrating the event.


Anoosh Khan, a professor of Gender Studies at UoP, argues that Valentine’s Day should be celebrated in ‘culturally appropriate’ ways. “When I was young, Valentine’s Day was associated with platonic love; we would give gifts and cards to our friends and even our parents. Because it was a small affair no one paid much attention to it. Today, it has been unnecessarily commercialised and politicised,” she says.

A student argues that young people have sentiments that are not easily suppressed so outlawing activities such as Valentine’s celebrations promotes a culture of secrecy.

“Teachers used to check bags for Valentine’s Day presents so girls would stand outside the school stuffing their faces with chocolate they had received as presents,” she laughs.

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Valentine's Day cards are sold at a campus gift shop. — Sara Khan


Although society and campuses are growing more polarised with time, there is definitely a considerable percentage of the student body that wishes to celebrate the day.

At the gift shop on campus at UoP, the shelves are lined with bright red cards and mugs proclaiming messages of love. The shopkeeper says the purchase of Valentine’s Day gifts is often done secretly. “Girls buy presents more often than boys,” he says.


The shopkeeper says the purchase of Valentine’s Day gifts is often done secretly.


UoP student Ali Shah says Valentine’s Day has now become a part of youth culture and women have expectations around it. “Men should give presents and roses to their fiancés and girlfriends so they are remembered,” he says with a cheeky smile at his female friend.

When asked if he will be celebrating Valentine’s he laughs and gestures towards his friend who looks away shyly, “we wish to celebrate it but they won’t allow it,” he quips.

Some names have been changed to protect students’ identities.
Here are some cartoons to lead the protest against valentine's day.
valen1.png


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There is death and destruction and corruption and all we care about is The V day! Kamal hain hun Pakistani bhi!
 
Here are some cartoons to lead the protest against valentine's day.
valen1.png


no_to_valentine_20140206_081158.jpg

Hmmm So why are those characters drawn in Manga form ? Do you know what else Manga is famous for ? You'd be surprised.. :pop:
 
Hmmm So why are those characters drawn in Manga form ? Do you know what else Manga is famous for ? You'd be surprised.. :pop:

LMAO! I was thinking the same thing. Anime has lashings of violence and sex hahah.

I find it funny that the most of ultra conservative members commented here are in fact living off in some of the most liberal democracies around the world like Britain, US, Canada and Sweden, While most of those in Pakistan itself have way more moderate views.. Ironic

Yep, that's how it works...
 
A relevant article, I suppose:

http://www.economist.com/news/finan...s-understand-economic-principles-underpinning

Free exchange
Optimising romance
To find true love, it helps to understand the economic principles underpinning the search
Feb 13th 2016


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DATING is a treacherous business. There may be plenty of fish in the sea, yet many are unhygienic, self-absorbed, disconcertingly attached to ex-fish, or fans of Donald Trump. Digital dating sites, including a growing array of matchmaking apps, are meant to help. Their design owes more to hard-nosed economics than it does to the mysteries of the heart.

In a sense, searching for a mate is not so different from hunting for a job. Jobs, like prospective partners, have their strengths and weaknesses, which makes finding the right one a matter of complicated trade-offs. Such exchanges are different from other transactions, in that both parties must be enthusiastic about the match for it to happen. A supermarket, in contrast, does not particularly care whose wallet it is draining, nor does the power company agonise about whether a customer is worthy of its watts.

Alvin Roth, who won a Nobel prize in economics for his work on market design, made a career of studying such “matching markets”, where supply and demand are not balanced by price. Instead, people transact based on information. An apple-seller can nudge down his prices until the whole cart is sold. Yet if Apple were looking to hire two workers, it would not set a salary so puny that only two people applied. The quality of new hires often matters at least as much as their salaries.

Mr Roth, who won the prize jointly with Lloyd Shapley in 2012, found that the structure of matching markets made a significant difference in determining who wound up with whom. Systems designed to elicit people’s true preferences generated better matches between hospitals and doctors, for example. But the entire medical profession has an interest in improving matches, and so can set up a national clearing house to do just that. The lovelorn must instead rely on an array of digital matchmakers.

Good matches depend on good information. Even without digital help, people usually have some inkling of how much they have in common. Cosmopolitan strivers move to New York, say, rather than sleepier cities, in part because they will meet other ambitious types with similar interests. Within New York, the places people choose to spend their time—whether Yankee Stadium or a yoga studio—determine which sorts of people they come into contact with. Because it is expensive to live in New York, and to spend time sweating in a yoga studio or swearing in the stands, people in such settings can be reasonably confident those around them are in some sense like-minded.

But one critical bit of information is missing: whether there is mutual interest. The act of asking someone out is fraught. In the non-digital world, approaching a potential partner brings the risk of awkwardness or humiliation. Digital dating reduces this cost dramatically. Apps like Tinder and Happn, for example, reveal that a user likes another only when the feeling is mutual.

The best matching markets are those that are “thick”, with lots of participants. The more people there are seeking digital dates, the greater the chance of finding a good match. Odds improve that another person in the crowd also enjoys Wagner, Thai food, or discussions about the economics of matching markets.

The wealth of information many dating sites request may help to home in on the perfect match, but if the effort involved is enough to deter potential mates from joining in the first place, then it does more harm than good. When Tinder first launched, largely to facilitate casual sex, users assessed one another based only on looks, age and gender. Simplicity worked wonders; there are 26m matches made between Tinder users each day.

The advantages of thick markets are lost, however, if they become too “congested”, with users overwhelmed by the number of participants and unable to locate a good match among them. One response is to specialise. JSwipe, for instance, caters to Jewish singles while Bumble, an app where women must initiate contact, is meant to attract feminists.

But the most popular apps seek to help their users filter possible mates using clever technology. Tinder, for example, only provides users with profiles of fellow Tinderites who are nearby, to make it that much easier to meet in person. It has also introduced a “super like” feature, which can be deployed only once a day, to allow smitten users to signal heightened interest in someone. In addition, last year it started allowing people to list their jobs and education, to help users to sort through the crowds. Users get the benefits both of a big pool of potential partners and various tools to winnow them.

Sext and the city

The emergence of matching apps, for those seeking love or theatre tickets or a lift, has certainly made once-onerous tasks more convenient. They may also contribute to more profound economic change. Dating apps could strengthen the trend toward “assortative mating”, whereby people choose to couple with those of similar income and skills. By one estimate, the trend accounts for about 18% of the rise in income inequality in America between 1960 and 2005. A recent study of online dating in South Korea found that it boosted sorting among couples by education.

Better matching may also mean bigger cities. Metropolitan goliaths have long been melting-pots, within which those early on in their adult lives link up with jobs, friends and mates. Matching apps, romantic or not, make it easier to navigate the urban sprawl and sample all it has to offer. That, in turn, should make the biggest cities relatively more attractive to young people.

Apps cannot yet make break-ups less painful. And love remains mysterious enough that even the most refined algorithms cannot predict mutual attraction with confidence. But they clearly help, judging by their legions of users. After all, it is better to have super-liked and lost than never to have super-liked at all.
 
So my company put bags of chocolate heart candy on all the employee's (1000's) desks today before we all came to work.

So sinister!! I wonder what they are up to
 
Our Country , Our Rules :)
even though i am not very supportive for this decision
 
ISIS Beheads Teddy Bear to Warn of Valentine's Day Ban

...According to Alsumaria News, a source in occupied Mosul told the satellite network that ISIS media distributed the alert barring shades of red even on children's clothes.
The source further reported that an ISIS cleric delivering a sermon days ago ripped the head off a red stuffed bear to underscore the ban.

Chaldean Catholic Bishop Basel Yaldo, meanwhile, posted pictures of a Baghdad Valentine's Day party attended by Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk and Mosul -


...Islamabad's High Court banned celebration of the holiday in public places throughout Pakistan on Monday after a citizen argued it was "against Islamic teachings and should be banned immediately." TV channels and newspapers were told to pull any promotions for V-Day. Still, the ruling didn't have an immediate effect -
 
Simply look away you have a right to feel uncomfortable but you have no right to tell then what they cant do
do you have a sister?

Other day I was sad when Israel passed a bill to stop saying Azdhans and WHAT we doing not less than Jews. Our pesdo left wing start cry and posting filth on actions of ban Hijab ban burqa ban Adhans in west even in China and hypocrites feels good when we ban someone other religious festival. Pathetic
Desi gorrey cry when you don't accept their way of life.
 
Talk about priorities of this society.....this has almost the same number of posts as the Lahore blast thread !
 
Happy Valentine's day :smitten:and hope you all apprecaite the loved one you have while you are alive and appreciate the moment to thank them with box of chocolate or flower, heck even a post card. Fantastic festival / gesture to appreciate the presense of someone when they are alive

Specially with all the bombings and killing world wide it is important we all apperciate the simple things in life even as simple as the act of gift giving

PS Also nice feeling when you know the Shopkeeper who sells the flower or post card will make good amount of $$$ for that day and will eat well for a week or 2
 
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