Pakistan district bans Valentine’s Day celebrations

A district in north-western Pakistan has banned Valentine’s Day celebrations. The local government in Kohat, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told police officers to stop shops from selling Valentine’s Day cards and items. Kohat district is run by a religious political party and borders Pakistan’s conservative tribal areas. Valentine’s Day is popular in many cities in Pakistan, […]

A district in north-western Pakistan has banned Valentine’s Day celebrations.
The local government in Kohat, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told police officers to stop shops from selling Valentine’s Day cards and items.
Kohat district is run by a religious political party and borders Pakistan’s conservative tribal areas.
Valentine’s Day is popular in many cities in Pakistan, but religious groups have denounced it as decadent.
The Kohat district administrator Maulana Niaz Muhammad told the BBC Urdu’s Azizullah Khan: “Valentine’s Day has no legal grounds, and secondly it is against our religion, therefore it was banned.”
While giving cards and flowers was not in itself a bad thing, linking this to a specific day was not appropriate, Mr Muhammad said. He added that he felt such practices could encourage obscene behaviour.