The golden sands and turquoise seas of the Maldives are a favorite location for couples looking to affirm their love in a location more exotic than the local courthouse. However, for one Swiss couple, their wedding turned out to more of an insult than anything else. The public relations disaster unfolded after someone uploaded a video of the ceremony to YouTube. That’s when it was discovered that the minister officiating the wedding had insulted the couple in Dhivehi — the local language in which the ceremony was conducted. What they thought were words typically spoken to join two people in matrimony were actually this tirade: “You are swine. 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, who does not even believe in an infidel religion.” After the video went viral, the Maldives government went into crisis management overdrive to protect its lucrative tourism industry. The Maldives Diplomatic Service apologized to the Swiss couple face-to-face and offered them compensation, assuring them that the minister responsible would face severe punishment. Sun Investments, which owns the resort, said it would "take resolute action against every member of the staff and management found responsible for this disgusting act”.
