University of Agriculture Faisalabad has decided that anyone who wants to celebrate Sisters's Day can gift scarves and abayahs to girl students at the varsity campus. (Photo: Reuters)

For some strange reasons, bizarreness and Valentine's Day go hand in hand. Not that the day is bizarre. The bizarreness is introduced externally. For instance, take a university in Pakistan that has declared that February 14 will be celebrated as 'Sisters' Day'. Yes, you read that correctly. But no, please don't bang your head. You shall overcome.

The bizarre farmaan (order) has been issued by Zafar Iqbal Randhawa, the vice-chancellor of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad. From the depths of his infinite wisdom, Randhawa sahib says that this will "protect Islamic traditions".

So what exactly will happen on Sisters' Day?

The university has decided that anyone who wants to celebrate the occasion can gift scarves and abayas to girl students. Who decided the gifts? Again, Randhawa sahib and the other decision makers of the varsity.

According to a report in Dawn, Pakistan's leading English-language newspaper, the vice-chancellor said he wasn't sure whether his suggestion to celebrate Sisters' Day "would click or not". Nonetheless, Dawn said, Randhawa sahib believed it was "compatible" with Pakistan's culture and Islam.

Randhawa told the newspaper that although there are some Muslims in Pakistan who have turned Valentine's Day into a threat, he believes that "if there is a threat, convert it into an opportunity".

But why-o-why should adult students celebrate Valentine's Day as Sisters' Day? To this, the vice-chancellor reasoned that it will help create a "soft image". People will realise that this is how much sisters are loved in Pakistan, he said according to Dawn.

"Today the era of gender empowerment is here, Western thinking is being promoted. But the best gender empowerment and division of work is in our religion and culture," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

The learned vice-chancellor then wondered: "Is there a love greater than that between brother and sister?" On Sisters' Day, it is greater than the love between husband and wife."

But this is not the first time that Valentine's Day has been in controversy. While urban centres in Pakistan have shown some acceptance, it remains clouded with controversies.

In 2017 and 2018, the Islamabad High Court ordered a ban on all Valentine's Day celebrations. Even the media was warned against promoting anything related to Valentine's Day.

Back home, India too has had its share of rechristening Valentine's Day. The demand that it should be "celebrated" as 'Matra Pitra Poojan Diwas' (a day to honour ones parents) does crop up in the season of love, i.e. as the calendar inches towards Valentine's Day every year.

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