The Philippine Online Chronicles

Reports of a Europe-based Islamic cleric saying women should not touch cucumbers has been making rounds on the Internet, sparking controversy.

The report allegedly came from Egyptian website Bikya Masr.

“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 report says. “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.”

The report added that “the opinion has stirred a storm of irony and denouncement among Muslims online, with hundreds of comments mocking the cleric.”

However Adrian Mack on Straight.com questioned the report's legitimacy. Although the story is “pretty good flame-bait,” Mack pointed out that trying to find the “el-Senousa news” referred to in the report via Google search only leads back to the same article on Bikya Masr.

“Between that and the somewhat intangible location and identity of the 'unnamed sheikh' in the article, the tale of the vegetable-fearing Mullah is starting to look a little short on authenticity,” Mack says.

“What’s more likely is that the independent news service [Bikya Masr] is reacting to the troubling emergence of the hard-line Salafi Al-Nou party in Egypt’s (reportedly fraud-ridden) election—a story that, sadly, isn’t so cockamamie.”

According to the New English Review however, there is precedent for the banning of women touching cucumbers.

“In 2008 the Daily Mail reported on the many atrocities committed by Al Qaeda in Iraq. By comparison the following was almost comical: 'They regarded the cucumber as male and tomato as female. Women were not allowed to buy cucumbers, only men,'” says the website. “And earlier this year in the Maldives reference to cucumbers was censored which upset local market gardeners.”

Regardless of the authenticity of the report, netizens have taken to making light of the story.

“I suppose it's a good way of getting out of doing the shopping and cooking,” said one female user in Expatforum.com.