I work today in a job that serves my country. The government paid for my postgraduate education. I know that my undergrad education in Saudi Arabia has served me well. I enjoy the benefits of that education.

Yet I am a realist. Being a woman in this society gives me no other choice. And as a consequence I keep my expectations low. With these expectation firmly established somewhere at the ground level of my life, it comes as no surprise that the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Haia) was apparently out in force the other night making sure there were no public celebration of the New Year. Apparently there is some decree that bans such celebrations because, after all, New Year’s Eve is just another day. Perhaps some member of the Haia can enlighten me about why a New Year’s Eve celebration is a religious issue that must be monitored by its members, because I sure as heck have no clue.

Celebrating the New Year is a secular event. Unlike Christmas, it has nothing to do with religion, and even many westerners will say that Christmas has become a secular holiday rather than a religious one. If New Year’s Eve is a secular event, then what role does the Haia play?

A reasonable person would ask on what basis was the decree issued banning public celebrations. That is, if such a decree was issued, since I have heard nothing about it except in the ever reliable and 100 percent accurate Saudi press.

Rather than celebrate non-Muslim holidays, the prophet (peace be upon him) said, “Allah has given you something better instead of them: Yawm Al-Duhaa (Eid Al-Adha) and Yawm Al-Fitr (Eid Al-Fitr).”

For non-Muslims, living in Saudi Arabia, the issue is quite different. There are 6 million expats living in the Kingdom, and many are not Muslim. We can’t expect their celebrations to cease to exist.

The Haia has no business enforcing a non-existent breach of conduct. Their presence in public and patrolling the streets for violators is intimidation. While celebrating the New Year according to the Gregorian calendar with a fireworks display may be too much for Saudi society, modest celebrations in restaurants, parks or on the Corniche among family and friends should not be an issue as long as participants behave in a respectful way.

Above all, the New Year, whether it’s according to the Hijri or Gregorian calendar, or the Chinese New Year, should be a time of reflection of our past deeds. Such reflection is private in nature, and individuals taking stock of their life and what the future holds should not be shamed into thinking there is something inherently wrong with putting an emphasis on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.

Some Saudis prefer that we live our lives in a vacuum, but if measuring our time by the Gregorian calendar is wrong, then perhaps some government ministries and private businesses should quit using the Gregorian calendar and return to the Hijri. Maybe that 2013 Toyota Camry you are driving should be a 1434 Toyota. And if you bought it last November, I mean Muharram then it should be the 1435 model.

But we don’t live in that world and every time these cockamamie public bans come out, we look like a bunch of extremists who haven’t quite caught up with the notion that there is a world beyond the Arabian peninsula.

My father told me once that in his day, young men in Madinah volunteered to provide religious instruction to passersby on the street, answer their questions, and provided a soft voice to people who wanted or needed instruction on how to live their lives to serve Allah and be good citizens.

Today, those instructions have morphed beyond religion to include anything remotely western or non-Muslim. That makes us ungracious hosts to the expatriate community and judgmental toward Muslims who have a wider worldview than other Muslims. Perhaps it’s time for us to consider whether the religious instruction of my father’s day, the instruction of tolerance and brotherhood, should return to 1435 or 2014, whatever calendar you follow.

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