Was There Really A Muslim Fatwa Aimed At Women Against Bananas and Cucumbers?

There have been some pretty asinine fatwas issued over the years by Muslim imams who have never evolved out of 6th century-thinking.  I've made fun of them all, but I questioned the most recent one allegedly made by some European cleric who said women should stay away from cucumbers, bananas and any other phallic-shaped fruits or veggies, for the rather obvious reasons. Admittedly, I groaned at first even though the source was the mainstream though non-liberal Fox News, but they too had questions about its validity. As it turns out, after a little research, the veracity of the banana ban is questionable, at best. 

Muna Khan over at al Arabiya claims that the information regarding the origins of said fatwa is unverifiable. It seems it's a question of one news site referencing another, with no verifiable source.  According to Khan:

"Egyptian newspaper Bikya Masr on Thursday which was quoting the website El-Senousa in which an unnamed cleric in Europe said that women shouldn’t touch fruit/vegetables like bananas, cucumbers, carrots and courgettes because they resembled male genitalia.



The only way women could eat these fruit was if there presented to them by “a third party, preferably a male related to them such as their father or husband should cut the items into small pieces and serve it to them” the newspaper quotes the cleric as saying. "

The problem is, no-one knows who this bozo cleric is nor can they find the original article on El-Senousa that Bikya Masr used as its source. 

This kind of  nonsense isn't beyond the realm of believability, considering past religious fatwas, but until we get a definitive source behind the ban, I'll just thank someone for the good laugh. Although I wouldn't be at all surprised if it were true.

UPDATE:
I think this might be the source article on assawsana.com but it's in Arabic, and the bing translator doesn't clarify much.

Photo source: Banana Museum