Last night while on the Kashmir highway- Islamabad. I saw a couple of banners saying celebrate this 14th February as “Modesty day”. Reading this statement was followed by a flashback in my mind reminding me of a news I saw in the paper exactly one year back, the News was tragic and shocking – and was of two student groups in Peshawar university who clashed on the 14th February because one of them wanted to celebrate the day as valentine day and the other one wanted to celebrate the day as modesty day. The clash resulted in several injured. Just when this flashback finished, the friend of mine sitting with me said ” dude what’s up with these Mullahs? What’s wrong in celebration and expression of love? People must be free to celebrate whatever they like, people are already sad and traumatized with repeated news of people dying of hunger and terrorism, isn’t it good if they get a couple of days to rehabilitate and express their feelings to their loved ones? and I was blank and confused, what do I say now? He surely has a point, and indeed a very legitimate point, after all there’s no objection in expression of love. No problem in reminding your loved ones how much you love them.
I slept with the same confusion and woke up with the same. opened the browser of my phone and came across this statement by the Founder and CEO of “Avvo” – Americas best online legal directory – in which he said :
“Over the past two years we’ve seen an average increase of 40 percent in the number of requests for divorce lawyers around Valentine’s Day, compared to the previous six months. Furthermore, the number of questions about divorce has soared 36 per cent during that same time. Indeed, there’s definitely a major Valentine’s spike when it comes to divorce.”
So maybe, the societies where marriage, divorce and sexual relationships is a piece of cake. Celebrating Valentine’s day is not that much of an issue, but in a society where family is the strongest institution – where marriage means a bond between two families, where traditions like ‘Saas’ (mother in law) putting on the engagement ring on her future daughter in law still exist – such events are legitimately subjected to objection.
Theoretically speaking : there’s absolutely no problem in expression and celebration of love, but practically what Valentine’s day promotes in way more than expression of love: the media and billboards pumping the youngsters to be free in expression of their immature lust and be rebellious if hurdled, The Markets coming up with more discount deals, decorations and delicious cakes is to sweep our traditions and values away with the global tide.
So , if sometime you too get confused by these banners calling you to be modest and media calling you to buy a chocolate for your girlfriend. Don’t be a part of anyone’s campaign – just ask yourself ” what’s my culture and values” and you would surely have a clear answer.
