In a bid to stop the promotion of Western values, Iranian police have launched a massive crackdown on Valentine\'s Day celebrations, ordering shops to remove heart-themed decorations from their windows and confiscating Valentine\'s cards. The crackdown was launched by plainclothes police Monday after Valentines inundated shopping malls in wealthy north Tehran and young people began to show great interest in marking the day. Valentine\'s Day and its tradition of exchanging gifts with the opposite sex contradicts conservative morals in a country where contact between unrelated men and women is strongly discouraged. \"Plainclothes police confiscated some of our Valentine Day decorations and told us to remove attractive Valentine cards from our windows. They offered no reason for the crackdown,\" said shopkeeper Shahab Amirkhani. Amirkhani\'s shop is one of many in the sprawling Qaem Shopping Mall near Tajrish Square in north Tehran prevented from a showing off products for the Feb. 14 holiday. He said he removed the large \"Happy Valentine\'s Day\" decorations from his window but was still meeting \"unending demands\" from young customers. \"They (the police) are opposed to love and affection,\" said Mina, an 18-year old girl who was buying a Valentine\'s card for her boyfriend. She refused to give her last name. \"They don\'t want us to be happy because Valentine\'s Day promotes happiness.\" Amirkhani and fellow shopkeeper Hamed Hosseini said they have been told to go to the vice police headquarters in north Tehran, apparently to pledge that they will not sell products promoting Western values. \"Police even objected to little mice couple in our window because they were embracing each other,\" shopkeeper Hosseini said. In Iran, public embracing between men and women is considered taboo. (AP)