Saudi Arabia’s vice squad is cracking down on Valentine’s Day, purging the country of hearts and red roses to prevent the inappropriate “mingling” of men and women. In Riyadh this weekend, officials from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice warned shopkeepers and confiscated anything colored scarlet, a color symbolizing love.

The ban is more significant than Westerners might assume — a measure of the strength of the mutawwa’s hold on Saudi citizens. It’s bad enough that Valentine’s Day is a Western holiday, but it also defies Saudi segregation of the sexes. United Press International quotes Saudi Sheikh Khaled Al-Dossari: “As Muslims we shouldn’t celebrate a non-Muslim celebration, especially this one that encourages immoral relations between unmarried men and women.”

Last year, the Weekly Standard saw growing Valentine’s Day lenience as one of the “first faint signs of a movement away from tyranny.” In 2007, the religious militia let non-Muslims celebrate the holiday behind closed doors, a significant concession for officers who barge into foreigners’ homes to enforce alcohol bans. Muslims still slipped around the ban and red roses sold out. This year, BBC says Saudis are buying roses early or on the black market, and florists are delivering bouquets in the middle of the night. Saudis are slipping away to Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates to celebrate.

Saudi Arabia isn’t the only country without a sense of romance. Today, Kuwaiti officials who monitor “negative alien practices” will discuss a ban on Valentine’s Day, in the interests of stopping the “spreading of moral corruption.” In India, Hindu extremists are burning Valentine’s Day cards and chanting, “Down with Valentine!” in a stand for “civilized love and affection.”

Despite the venom, romance lives. In the New York Times today, Rajaa Alsanea says Saudi sweethearts may not be able to spend time alone without getting 200 lashes for mingling, but they still fall in love over the Internet or by cell phone, exchanging gifts through servants. “All these strictures do not mean that Saudis don’t long for love,” Alsanea says. “Still, romantics dream of that surprise on Valentine’s Day.”