Ayrault causes blushes for Arabs

NEW prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault is causing blushes in many Arab countries - especially for journalists - as his surname sounds the same as a colloquial word for penis.

Many radio and TV stations subtly changed the pronunciation to move it away from the embarrassing name and the French Foreign Ministry has now put out a new version of the pronunciation saying it is permissible to pronounce the normally silent L and T letters.

Pronounced correctly in French it is Ai-roh but this will now become Ai-rolt. It is normal to pronounce all the letters in Arabic.

Some Arab newspapers have resorted to calling him Aro (pronounced arrow) or in the case of Dubai's Al Bayan using his first names.

A similar problem arose in France for Russian president Vladimir Putin, whose name sounds similar to “putain,” French slang word for prostitute and a common swear word (even uttered by Jean Dujardin as he accepted his Best Actor Oscar).

One English-language Arab website highlighted a bigger problem for Pakistani diplomat Akbar Zeb, who has not been able to visit many Arab countries as his name means "biggest penis" in Arabic.