Maldives grovels after French couple wedding insults

The Maldives has promised strict new rules for conducting wedding ceremonies after a French couple were abused as “swine” and “infidels” while renewing their marriage vows. The marriage celebrant, who abused the pair in the local language, has been arrested along with another employee of the upmarket resort.

YouTube

The incident came to light after a video of the ceremony, which took place earlier this month, was posted on YouTube with English subtitles.

The Vilu Reef hotel, where the ceremony took place, said it was "unforgivable" that a staff member had read out the sexual and religious slurs in the Dhivehi language.

The couple, who were renewing their vows at a cost of close to 1,000 euros, smile throughout the ceremony.

"You are swine," they were told. "The children that you bear from this marriage will all be bastard swine.

"Your marriage is not a valid one. You are not the kind of people who can have a valid marriage. One of you is an infidel. The other, too, is an infidel and - we have reason to believe - an atheist."

The celebrant also made distasteful references to the man's penis.

The hotel initially identified the victims as Swiss but a Maldives tourism official told press agency AFP that they are French.

President Mohamed Nasheed said that all tourist hotels would be required to follow new guidelines in the wake of the incident, which he described as “absolutely disgraceful”.

The Maldives, a small Muslim nation of tiny coral islands, is known as a top honeymoon destination and its economy depends heavily on tourism.