By Ahmed Nazeer

The Maldives National Broadcasting Corporation (MNBC) has censored the word ‘cucumber’ from an advertisement produced by the Islamic Foundation of the Maldives (IFM), due to the potential for public embarrassment.

At the beginning of the advertisement, Sheikh Fareed asks viewers whether Allah created “men or the cucumber” for women.

President of Islamic Foundation, Ibrahim Fauzy, claimed the statement was a voice clip from a sermon Sheikh Fareed delivered in 2002 in response to an article published in a Maldivian magazine, which reportedly claimed that cucumbers were “better” than men.

“After that sermon he was arrested, but it was a response to a statement in the magazine,’’ Fauzy said. “The magazine was registered with the then Information Ministry.’’

Fauzy said that when the word cucumber was removed from Fareed’s statement, it “no longer makes any sense.”

“They quit broadcasting the ad without even informing us. We noticed that the ad did not appear last night,’’ he said. “We went to the MNBC station to ask about it and only then did why learn why this was the case.”

Chief Executive of MNBC Mohamed Asif told local media that the advertisement had to be censored because of an “embarrassing phrase’’, and that the station had begun reviewing the matter after removal of the offending vegetable.

The advertisement was for Sheikh Fareed’s ”Farewell” sermon, to be delivered tomorrow night at the Artificial Beach.