An Iraqi city banned a color festival and erected concrete barriers around a park as the festival would have allowed for the mixing of men and women.

According to Agence France‑Presse, Murtada al-Shahmani, a member of the city’s provincial council, said the decision to cancel the festival in Basra, Iraq was out of respect for families who were mourning the deaths of loved ones at the hands of the Islamic State.

Those “without conscience or hearts or morals come to hold mixed-sex festivals that bring them out to be joyful, and the families of the martyrs see them and weep for their children,” Shahmani said.

According to Haaretz, the festival is a smaller version of the annual Indian Holi celebration during which the young participants throw colorful powder and water at each other.