Valentine’s Day!

A different kind of Valentine’s Day! Is this right or wrong

In a country where Valentine’s Day, New Year, and Bengali New Year are declared “haram,” we see another bizarre scene: little children washing their mothers’ feet on Valentine’s Day for no reason at all. This absurd and laughable ritual becomes strangely popular. What greatness is there in a child unnecessarily washing someone’s feet? What is there to learn? What is there to be proud of? Instead, these practices hinder a child’s healthy development. They are taught from an early age that their parents are their masters, superior and entitled to unquestioned obedience. Children should instead be taught how to question superstition, how to challenge the rusted beliefs and traditions of society, and how to build a modern, science-oriented culture. They should grow the courage and integrity to question even their own parents about the source of their income.

Every part of the human body is important and sacred—hands, feet, head, even the buttocks. Each has its own purpose. Touching someone’s feet or bowing to them is portrayed as placing their feet above one’s own head. From childhood we are taught never to touch paper, books, pens, money, food, or people with our feet. If it happens accidentally, we are told to apologize to the object or person. What nonsense! You cannot take something with your left hand, even if your right hand is holding something heavy. And taking anything from an elder with the left hand is unthinkable. These outdated, irrational rules must be broken.

These childish and meaningless customs are presented as “moral education,” while children are kept away from real moral values. The child who is washing his mother’s feet today for the sake of a ceremony may grow up to wrinkle his nose at the sight of a sick mother’s wounded foot. A colleague’s son rides a bicycle to school, while he arrives in a car—yet he will never wonder how his father made that possible. Instead, he will be taught that picking up a fallen pen with his foot is immoral, that these trivialities define manners and ethics. This society shapes a child into a narrow-minded person regarding his beliefs, his country, and his nation. He grows up thinking his belief is supreme, his country is the best, his nation is superior. He loses the ability to see all humans as equals.

Parents in this country often believe that giving birth to a child makes them the child’s owners. They think they have done something extraordinary by becoming parents, and now the child must obey them for life, follow their wishes, and support them in old age. That is why, even before a child learns to stand properly, a schoolbag heavier than the child’s own body is placed on their shoulders. Parents decide when the child will go to school, when to attend music class, dance class, drawing class—everything. Science or arts, doctor or engineer—everything is imposed. They forbid love, and even marriage must be decided by the parents. Parents have their own interests in having children. A child depends on parents and the state for survival and growth because that is their right. It is the duty of parents and the state to raise them to a certain age. But must the child carry the parents’ feet on their head for the rest of their life in return? How long will this outdated mentality continue? Children are human beings too; they also have personal freedom.

A child may wash their mother’s feet when needed, and even as an adult may lovingly clean the feet of an elderly mother who is unable to do so herself. But forcing a child to perform such acts as part of a staged ceremony is an obstacle to a beautiful childhood. It is time to kick away these absurd forms of so-called moral education.