Uzbekistan Cracks Down on Valentine's Day

Bitter singletons and coupled Valentine's Day haters alike can finally move to a country where their distaste for the holiday is enthroned in government policy: Uzbekistan.

The BBC reports that Uzbek authorities have canceled hundreds of Valentine’s Day events this year, including a concert by national pop sensation Rayhan, who has performed love ballads on Feb. 14 for years.

Instead, the country, whose authoritarian leader has been in power since 1989 and is known to heavily censor the media, will put on patriotic festivities of a national legend who's birthday falls on Feb. 14. Babur, a descendant of Genghis Khan and founder of a culturally rich and tolerant empire across South and Central Asia, will be celebrated in nationwide poetry readings and commemorations.

The BBC reports that an official from the education ministry's Department for Enlightenment and Promoting Values said it had issued an internal decree "not to celebrate holidays that are alien to our culture and instead promote Babur's birthday.”

Valentine's Day has become popular in recent years, especially among Uzbek youth, who have been increasingly spotted sending love letters and chocolates to their respective sweethearts, and the crackdown comes as the central Asian country struggles to shield its culture from Western influence. Positioned on the ancient Great Silk Road between Europe and Asia, the post-Soviet bloc country with a majority Muslim population has long held socially conservative views and struggled to maintain its identity from outside powers.