Islamic cleric bans women from touching bananas, cucumbers for sexual resemblance
Islamic cleric bans women from touching bananas, cucumbers for sexual resemblance
CAIRO: An Islamic cleric residing in Europe said that women should not be close to bananas or cucumbers, in order to avoid any “sexual thoughts.”
The unnamed sheikh, who was featured in an article on el-Senousa news, was quoted saying that if women wish to eat these food items, a third party, preferably a male related to them such as their a father or husband, should cut the items into small pieces and serve.
He said that these fruits and vegetables “resemble the male penis” and hence could arouse women or “make them think of sex.”
He also added carrots and zucchini to the list of forbidden foods for women.
The sheikh was asked how to “control” women when they are out shopping for groceries and if holding these items at the market would be bad for them. The cleric answered saying this matter is between them and God.
Answering another question about what to do if women in the family like these foods, the sheikh advised the interviewer to take the food and cut it for them in a hidden place so they cannot see it.
The opinion has stirred a storm of irony and denouncement among Muslims online, with hundreds of comments mocking the cleric.
One reader said that these religious “leaders” give Islam “a bad name” and another commented said that he is a “retarded” person and he must quite his post immediately.
Others called him a seeker of fame, but no official responses from renowned Islamic scholars have been published on the statements.
Dec 09, 2011 @ 13:11:11
I have came across this story many times years ago and I think that the first thing you will think about when you read it, is that you want to verify where this is coming from.
This piece is based on an article written on 13th of April 2008 by “Ahmad Abu Matar”, a Palestinian writer (google him if interested in more), where he was talking about what muslims are going through. The actual text of the full article in Arabic can be found here:
http://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?t=0&aid=131352
As you will see in the original post it was a personal experience shared by the actual writer of a bigger article. What actually happened is that he heard the “Imam” in one of these mosques saying that. He was not really a Muslim cleric/scholar and this “fatwa” was never published nor said in public. What happened is that because of how amusing it is, for years now it has been circulating around to laugh at rather than a piece of legit news but it just surfaced again after three years when it was translated into English.
These ideas and maybe even worse do come out from Muslim clerics and scholars and I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them did say that. But I just really care about making things right.