Ban on red roses in Saudi Arabia

Interesting article cut out from the local newspaper:

Ban on red roses in Saudi Arabia
Published: Tuesday, 12 February, 2008, 01:52 AM Doha Time

RIYADH: A Saudi Arabian authority has banned red roses ahead of Valentine’s Day, forcing couples in the Muslim nation to think of new ways to show their love.
The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has ordered florists and gift shop owners in the capital Riyadh to remove any items coloured scarlet, which is widely seen as symbolising love, newspapers said.
“They visited us last night,” the Saudi Gazette quoted an unidentified florist as saying.
It is not unusual for the Saudi vice squad to clamp down ahead of Valentine’s Day, which it sees as encouraging relations between men and women outside of wedlock, the newspaper said.
Saudi Arabia prevents unrelated men and women from mixing, bans women from driving and demands that women wear a headscarf and a cloak. –Reuters

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=201097&version=1&template_id=37&parent_id=17