Tunisians celebrate Valentine's Day
2008-02-14
Many Tunisians have embraced the idea of dedicating a special day to honour romantic love. Music concerts, restaurant events and long lines outside gift shops mark Valentine’s Day in the capital city.
By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 14/02/08
 [Jamel Arfaoui] A Tunis vendor sells chocolates for Valentine's Day. The celebration of romantic love with gifts and cards is becoming increasingly popular in Tunisia. |
For Tunisians young and old, the Valentine's Day celebration of love and romance is growing increasingly popular. In preparation for the February 14th event, retailers fill display windows with red hearts, teddy bears and woollen cats of different colours to tempt shoppers, while store owners greet enthusiastic customers with phrases such as "love is the dearest thing in life" and "lovers' satisfaction is our mission".
Gifts vary from decorative cards bearing the name of the beloved in gold or silver lettering to perfume, jewellery, a red rose or an assortment of chocolates.
Soliman, a man in his fifties, queued up in front of a busy card shop near a church in the main street of Tunis. After a long wait, he stood before a man behind a small desk, who charges two dinars to write a message to a "sweetheart" in golden letters.
"My son wanted me to bring him one of these, and I do not know to whom he is going to present it, as he wanted a single letter to be written on it. It might be his girlfriend's name," he told Magharebia. He said with exasperation, "I do not know where these habits came from."
Myriam Qila'i, also waiting in line, patiently explained to her neighbour, "Today's young people value love highly and celebrate it on a dedicated date."
In downtown Tunis, several young girls crowd outside a shop on Charles De Gaulle Street, deciding on Valentine's Day presents. Aida Melliti, a student preparing for the baccalaureate exam, said that she brought all she had saved to buy her boyfriend a gift. She nearly forgot the date of Valentine's Day last year, she said, but her mother reminded her. Her friend Hanene Ferchichi, who had been unable to save up for a more expensive gift, said that a rose would have to do. "What matters is the gift itself, not its price. At the end of the day, each one of us is free to choose whatever he can afford," she said.
Since Monday morning, youth-oriented Radio Mosaique has been broadcasting ads urging the audience to record love messages to be aired on Valentine's Day. The announcer said that the winner of the best message "would get a weekend in a luxurious hotel with his beloved one."
French-language International Radio will hold its fourth annual celebration of Valentine's Day with a live concert in the Youth City in the Tunisian capital.
Local papers are stuffed with advertisements by restaurants and hotels that have invited stars from Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt for evening parties on Valentine's Day. One such event will feature singers Wael Jassar, Pascal Machaalani and Olfa Ben Romdhan. Egyptian artist Tamer Hossni is set to perform Thursday evening at another huge party at Al-Quoba Palace in Menzah.
Not all Tunisians, however, support Valentine's Day festivities. Student Khaled Mokdadi sees marking the day as a "blind imitation of the West which would undermine our habits and traditions."
"Isn't Eid al-Fitr a good chance to show love and friendliness among people," he asked.
His friend Dia' added, "Celebrating Valentine's Day is no longer confined to residents of rich districts – it has become popular in the whole sense of the word and whoever disagrees would be charged with strictness and backwardness."
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Anonymous Posted 2008-02-14
This is shameful for a Muslim country.
Kaddour Posted 2008-02-15
Saint Valentine’s Day, you say!? It is only for snobs. I am very disappointed in the Tunisians who practice this holiday. In a country with a statue of Zeitouna, there will never be Islam.
محبوبة Posted 2008-02-15
Salam alaikom. We should be satisfied with their product and our product: the internet. We die for it. The artificial satellites are their product and we die for them. Everything we use today and everything which is admired by the majority of people is their product. But they have also started to appreciate our traditions and customs and use them. To sum up, every person has a mind with which to distinguish good from bad, particularly whether to love or not. Everyone is free on the condition that he doesn't harm others. If his heart is nice and full of love, why should he fear the Day of Love?
tunisois Posted 2008-02-15
I chose this comment extravaganza for you. Today is the day of love. God bless the grace of our master ‘Saint Valentine’. May God make it a blessed and happy day for you and all believers. This is the day of love for me and you, offer me a give and I will offer myself a gift, buy me something and I will buy you something; he who loves doesn’t make calculations. As El Aakri says, by nature, many people see heresy, blind imitation and something which isn’t in our tradition in this celebration. Even if these words are correct, it isn’t a big problem because it isn’t necessary that everything be ‘ours’. If not, we should remove even traffic signs because they’re not ours. But it is evident that “Saint Valentine’ isn’t one of the items which are “ours”. It is a good occasion to talk about the topic of love. This topic is not tackled by the code except for on a few occasions and very superficially. The most important question, instead of asking whether the Day of Love is ours or not is to ask whether we are people of love or not? If you come to see things, we are in a country that loves love and encourages those who love, and at times it even pushes you to love people who it wouldn't even cross your mind to love. You find yourself loving them greatly, and you see their good faces day and night. This is true love indeed. That's not all, because we have, inchallah, a project to create a magazine to encourage love like those that encourage investment, so that we exempt from taxes and customs duties all the goods imported by people who love us and whom we love. In this way love becomes spots and those who love spots will have the will of God. To sum up, what I 'wanted' to say, is that love isn't a taboo for us. But sex is, God forbid, and this entails many problems because if we accept one we should accept the other. Otherwise it will be a pure and plutonic love. Dim and tasteless like a Sunday afternoon. This kind of love doesn’t slake the thirst, heal or appease the hunger. Therefore, we suggest that we go back to sex and celebrate it on a special day. In this everything finds its due esteem, and even the poor find something to offer and don't feel rejected by his or her counterparts.
manoo Posted 2008-02-15
You dare say that this is shameful for a Muslim country! Just one small remark here: expressing your love has never been off limits. At least the Tunisians with no insecurities about openly expressing their feelings are not hiding in the closet. This is a beautiful occasion that we share with the West and it comes from the nobility of this feeling. Love is even the foundation of the healthy societies. It is with pleasure and joy that we are celebrating! Offering a flower to your loved one, your mother, your father and any other people dear to you is marvellous. We look forward to this opportunity to give to each other just like our Prophet did in order to bring people together. Saying “I love you” can be nothing but a pleasure and a wonderful thing! Go attack people about their attitudes concerning more strategic subjects in the West, not this!
Maher de france Posted 2008-02-15
With globalization, Saint Valentine’s Day is becoming a global event, surpassing economic, political, religious and ethnic borders. I think that in the future we will have a single world without borders. It will be a synthesis of our cultures. Here is a question: when the West adopts something from the Orient, does anyone say anything?
Burqa Valentino Posted 2008-02-15
If I have to choose between the tradition of Sidi Valentino and the tradition of the Burqa, my mind is crystal clear which to pick, but ideally I would rather prefer something authentically Tunisian that expresses the true essence of me.
aymen Posted 2008-02-15
If loving someone is snobbish, then the whole world is in danger! To devote oneself to a practice that aims only to bring pleasure to a person through small gestures can be nothing but beautiful! If you went out and about on the streets of Tunisia on Valentine’s Day, you would appreciate how happy the people were to have a new opportunity to express their feelings and how much good this did for loved ones! That this occasion is of Western origin is not that important, as, above all else, it is of humane origin! And, it is a day where all the gift and flower shops work hard and have a day of good business. In short, a holiday of love, Valentine’s Day, can only bring good to us. And, if in your country this holiday is not celebrated or it is forbidden to sell anything that is red on the Valentine’s Day, then it means that expressing your feelings wherever you may be is taboo… and that is very serious indeed! This is the cause of the suppression of feeling and, sometimes, even worse things.
oueslati Posted 2008-02-16
I do not know how they got accustomed to this! What shamefulness!
mohamed ali Posted 2008-02-17
I respect your Maghreb nationality which calls for unity and rejection of fragmentation, but your reply with your contributions to this wide forum which talked about Saint Valentine and the way Tunisians celebrate it, contribute nothing. Therefore, I ask you brothers to stop directing your arrows at us and leave us and our affairs with our God.
amina larbi Posted 2008-02-17
What shamefulness on the part of the Tunisians and on the part of some people among us… celebrating Saint Superficial like parrots. For real Muslims, it is always a holiday of love; we do not need these stupid inventions to remember this.
Anonymous Posted 2008-02-17
Hi Yasmine, While reading the news, I found this article. So I am sending you this just like that. Kisses, Nabil
amal de tunis Posted 2008-02-18
First of all, my dear Amina, love does not have a large place in the everyday life of a Muslim from the Maghreb. People, especially men, do not have the courage to express their feelings. In order to camouflage their lack of natural sincerity, make a show of their “machismo”. As for St. Valentine’s Day, I think that interest people are giving it has—for obvious reasons—not only been artificially inflated by businesses but also by the media in order to find subjects that strike a chord with people in order to boost ratings: them saying that a lot of Tunisians are celebrating “St. Whatever” is false. Personally, aside from some passing childishness on the part of a couple young people, I have never seen or sensed anyone ever being infatuated—let alone a prolonged interested—in this event. Rather, the storefronts are set up for the sales at this time of the year. That said, we seriously need to express our feelings at every opportunity—birthdays, marriages, births, getting over an illness, successes and so on—without having complexes or being embarrassed about it.
subhanallah Posted 2008-02-19
better express your love through remmbering allah and be nice to your wife,instead of buying her 'one rose one valentines day'.this rose will die after few days and thats it,thats how big your love is??you show your love once a year?alhamdulillah,i dont have a husband like this! la hawla wa la quwwata illah billah!you like saint valentine?you like him even he was a kafir,and he will go to hell?and you follow this example?la hawla wa la quwwata illah billah!these people should feel ashamed in front of allah,but sometimes i dont blame them,they have no knowledge! this practise is NOT GOOD,rather it will devide tyhe muslim umma and let them follow the kuffar step by step.the prophet saws warned us of this.subhanallah
BIBOU Posted 2008-02-22
I love you, Tatouma. I am Beya from Tunis.
salah Posted 2008-06-19
I love Valentine's Day which is celebrated by Tunisians.
bakkali Posted 2009-02-07
These are not men.
samantha66 Posted 2009-02-14
I am not Muslim and I have no problem with Muslims, but, on the contrary, why say that this is shameful for Muslim or even a Muslim country? We are all men and we all come to the same end: we all die. Why do we always get mixed up in religions? This makes no sense. Celebrating Valentine’s Day is not a crime or a tragedy. It is up to everyone to choose for themselves. I truly see no harm in devoting 24 hours to love whether you are Tunisian, Christian or Muslim. All human beings here on earth ought to love at least one time in their life, whatever their religious identity is, so it is normal to celebrate this. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
NICOLAS Posted 2009-02-17
To “Samantha 66”- I think that a person in love is an extremely unfortunate person. Even if it gives the impression of feeling good like a drug, who should be taking drugs? Moreover, it is only momentary!!! The lover is a person’s slave. Is there anything worse than someone being the slave of someone else or something else??? Personally, I prefer to live with a woman without loving her to the point of adoring her like a God: this is dangerous. I know what I am talking about. I have sworn to never be in love with a woman again because it is too heavy a burden to bear. You have to always be perfect, and, when it comes down to it, that is hard!!! I want to be free. I would really like you to respond to my message!!! I tell you, women who say they love their guy tell him “I love you”, but this is an aberration. Personally, I prefer to judge someone not based on their words, but based on their actions, just like we judge a tree by its fruit, no??? Once again, I would indeed like to have your point of view, thank you. But, to me, Valentine’s Day means venerating someone like a God, and that is something I am against because it is a heavy burden to bear throughout your life.
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