RIYADH - It is the eve of Valentine's Day in Saudi Arabia -- and as usual the florists are hiding away their red roses.
Toy stores have cuddly red teddy bears and candy merchants have heart-shaped red boxes of bon bons in stock, but all are hidden out of sight.
It is the annual battle between Saudi romantics and the feared Muttawa, the moral police, who each year try to convince the public that Valentine's Day on February 14 is a heathen holiday.
This year is no different -- clerics have reminded people that Islam does not recognise Valentine's Day, which originally commemorated one or more Christian martyrs called Saint Valentine.
According to media reports this week, the education ministry sent out circulars about the proscribed day in an effort to protect the most vulnerable -- students.
Meanwhile supermarkets and chocolate shops have tucked away red gift items.
Two days before the big day a florist in Riyadh's upmarket Suleimaniya district was shipping out wreaths of red roses and crimson apples in the middle of the afternoon, the time that everyone else, including the Muttawa, is at rest.
"Every year they try to stop Valentine's Day," said a Pakistani deliveryman as he packed the wreaths into a van. "The Muttawa will come tonight. If they catch me they will take all of these and destroy them."
But the Muttawa -- which go by the official name of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices-- are only a nuisance, said a choclatier in front of his shop pmWednesday.
His Valentine's assortments are mixed colours -- red, blue, green etc -- so that he doesn't attract undo attention.
"Sales are still good," he said, not wanting to be identified to be on the safe side.
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