The manager of a guest house in Male’ has discovered a six month old baby left alone in one of the property’s rooms on Monday (August 20), prompting a police investigation that today revealed the child’s mother to be a 13 year-old minor.
According to local media reports, the child was discovered by the manager of the M. Hudhufas guest house in the capital after he heard the baby crying for several hours. Upon entering the room, he discovered the child alone and unharmed.
The Maldives Police Service was alerted to the scene immediately, with the baby being taken into state care temporarily while a search was conducted for the child’s parents.
A girl claiming to be the child’s mother later came to the police station by herself after officers called the mobile number she had provided while checking into the guest house.
“We called the number to confirm if she was the baby’s mother and asked her to report to the station. When she came, we found out that she was just a 13 year-old girl,” Police Sub-Inspector Hassan Haneef said.
When asked about the circumstances surrounding her pregnancy, Haneef noted that no further information could be revealed about the case at this stage, as the mother was a minor herself.
A police investigation is currently ongoing in collaboration with the Gender Ministry.
Haneef also declined to confirm if the police were investigating the details of how the minor became pregnant or if there was suspicion she may have been the victim of abuse.
“We have now returned the girl and her baby to her family,” he added.
Speaking to Minivan News today, Deputy Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem also pointed out that in cases involving minors, “no conclusions” should be drawn until an investigation into the matter was completed.
When asked if a minor who gives birth to a child out of marriage could face criminal charges, Shameem said that it was “very unlikely”. He contended that, under the law, a child below 18 cannot give their consent for sex – therefore any resulting pregnancy is deemed to be the result of sexual abuse.
“For example, in this case, we need to determine first if she is in fact the mother of the baby or not. Then we need to find out how she got pregnant and where her parents were when this happened, because they are responsible for looking after their underage children,” Shameem added. “She is a minor so she cannot give consent [for sex], so police need to investigate the case. It it is very unlikely in such cases for minors to be charged and prosecuted,” he explained.
The “Stringent Punishments for Perpetrators of Sexual Violence Against Children Act’ explicitly states that a child below 13 years of age cannot give consent to any form of sexual relationship, which will be deemed as abuse – a punishable criminal offence. If the child is aged between 13 to 17 years of age, the court must similarly deem that she or he cannot give consent to any form of sexual relationship unless proven otherwise in court.
However, given the history of cases of unmarried pregnancies in the country – often resulting from sexual abuse or unsafe sex – women or girls have traditionally faced the brunt of legal repercussions and widespread stigma. Subsequently, there have been a number of recent incidents reported in media where pregnant women have been forced to take desperate measures, such as self-induced abortions, infanticide or leaving babies abandoned.
In June, police recovered the body of a newborn infant buried in the outdoor shower of a house on Shaviyani Feydhoo island. The baby’s mother was identified as a 15 year-old school student.
Meanwhile, over the last two years, three newborns have been found dead in the country, with another two incidents where newborn children were discovered abandoned but alive. Two foetuses were reported discovered during this two year period, one hidden in a milk tin and the other at the bottom of Male’s municipal swimming pool. Another fully-developed baby was thrown into a park having apparently been strangled with underwear tied around its neck.
The two babies found abandoned and alive have now been placed under state care.
The Centre for Community Health and Disease Control (CCHDC) has described these incidents, as well as the figures detailing an increase in the rate of sexually transmitted diseases, as evidence of a sexual health crisis in the Maldives.
Nazeera Najeeb, who leads the reproductive health unit of the CCHDC, told Minivan News in an interview earlier this year that the centre was witnessing an “alarming” increase in cases of underage and unplanned pregnancies, where some girls are getting pregnant “without even knowing it”.
“These unwanted pregnancies are subsequently resulting in more unsafe abortions, baby dumping or infanticide,” she noted.
Najeeb added: “Not just that, sexual violence committed against girls such as sexual abuse and rape, remains at alarmingly high levels. In most cases, abused girls did not even know what happened to them, because no one talks to them about it.”
To curb these perceived problems, she stressed the need for implementing a comprehensive sex education curriculum in and outside educational institutions to create greater awareness on sexual and reproductive health subjects.
Though the concept of sex education is widely supported by health authorities, including Health Minister Dr Ahmed Jamsheed, efforts to implement such practices nationally have been limited.
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Not enough women wear the hijab. I would advise women, especially children, who cannot easily defend themselves or run away, not to wear clothes that are too revealing or uncovers the hair.
Men will be men, and it is not fair on them to always be surrounded by forbidden flesh or they will be tempted to do things like this.
That is why religion teaches women (and men of course) to be modest. They must take responsibility for their actions.
Child abuse is not allowed in modern democracy.
Child marriage and sex are allowed in Islam.
Democracy and Islam are NOT compatible.
But do we really want to debate it and once and for all, decide what would be in country's best interest, for future.
Islam is being portrayed as a panacea - a remedy for all ills. Clearly there are some who writes here purposely to use any thing as a pretext give Islam a bad name.
The 13 year minor case has nothing to do with Islam.
The root cause is poverty. How else would a 13 year rent a room in guest house?
No amount of Burugaa can cover poverty and destitution. As long as poverty is prevalent in society, young girls and boys would be exploited.
The real protection is not burugaa. Its social justice.
How does this 13yrs old 'child' pay the rent..Further investigation may uncover some unpleasant truths,unless of course the father is someone with 'connections'???
Another Ayesha!!
The sickening abuse and exploitation of very young girls will continue unabated in conservative muslim societies till someone has the courage and foresight to bring about change. Muslim women are too gutless and servile to bring about change after centuries of persecution in male dominated muslim societies.....persecution that continues to this day.
I am sure there will be no punishment for the child's father because having under aged sex is not a crime in islam and there is no minimum age for marriage in sharia law. The mullahs have deemed 'the girl must be mature' which can be as young as twelve years old.
The statistics for underage marriages in Yemen, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia make my flesh creep.
Child marriages were once common in hindu societies but we have moved on. Fourteen centuries later muslims are still practising the primitive customs of their forebears.
You need to re-examine all your laws before you can even THINK of democracy.
We Indians have so much to teach you primitive islanders.
@Mr.new dhelhi
you've got 12,000 nepalese girls below 15 being trafficked into India for sexual exploitation.
Youve got a tonne of child marriages to this day, several cases documented in rural areas especially,
youve got tourists being gang raped frequently in goa, one of your best tourist destinations
Statistically far worse a country for sexual assault than the rest of south asia,
Your people are still obsessed with the concept of Caste, and undermine human potential,
and yet you call a group of Islanders of 350,000 people with no real natural resources primitive..
mmkay
Oh btw kind regards to all swami's who are eligible for passports in your place who literally marry off people to Dogs to bring luck, yes It has happened and has been documented,
Pot calling the kettle black? in this case a seems piece of coal calling the a dirty piece of silver black..
@Concerned Muslim
I am just speechless and outraged at your comment. Hijaab as the solution to men who do not honour us? Why does it have to be OUR fault if men cannot keep their pants on. How pathetic is this excuse "men will be men". Good grief.
The Quraan DOES NOT stipulate we have to wear the hijaab. The hijaab is a costume dictated by cultural norms , not by Islam. And it is being used by men to oppress , subjugate women and convert them to the membership of the Fourth Reich..... the Fascist Wahhabi Movement.
If men are this weak, then perhaps THEY have to take action to curb their sexual apetites. I suggest men start eating papaya five time a fday. I am told it suppresses sexual iimpulses. there are drugs on the market too
@Islam and Islam
very well said.
@india newdhelhi
Bricks in glass houses much?
And whats your obsession with Maldives you nut, And you criticized someone over genetics in comments a while back..
But guess what?
youve got a population of 1.2 billion, and whats your olympic placement?
Countries with FAR FAR less people have won much more medals than you guys.
37.2% of your whole population lives below the poverty line.. and 67%live off less than 2 dollars per day. And this is embarrassing when India is one of the largest economies in the world. All because of your extremely discriminatory caste system, and judging by your attitude towards Maldivians in the comments you post on minivan, you are a pathetic excuse for a human being, a racist, a facist and an all round dirtbag
(and again, some of the nicest people ive met from india, so not taking shots at India. But people like you are a disgrace to your country and humanity itself,)
@concerned muslim, this has nothing to do with hijab.. No matter how much covering someone wears, people get assaulted, and thats because theres a whole lot of nasty filth who should never be called humans living among us, who ruin lives of little girls and boys like the man who did with that girl
I don't find this surprising and technically, taking into consideration sunnah and Islamic history, marrying or having sex with underage girls is not a new thing or has not even been considered bad. In fact, the islamic prophet married Aysha when she was 6 and consummated the marriage when she was 9. Stories of people who go to study to places like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, who then come back and marry children as young as this, is not really new to the Maldives, even with all its laws.
So do I blame Islam for this? Yes I do. No amount of extra clothing on your body will protect you from rape. In fact, you don't have to look far to know that a large number of rape victims in the Maldives do wear the hijab, especially considering pretty much every woman nowadays wears one. Also when it comes to say, marrying children or pedophilia, I do not think Islam necessarily prevents it, but rather does the opposite.
I hate it when people beat about the bush.
It relates to Islam. Islam is the way of life to contain, subjugate, coax, and intimidate and manage uneducated, poor, ignorant societies. This is done under pretext of divine guidance, with the heaven-carrot in front of the donkey.
Think. With your minds, and not the mind of darkages, Bedouin donkey.
God has given you a life to live in harmony, society, be good to each other...all the better traits common in all effing religions.
For god sake, a human eye, a human hand has got more miracles in them, than any holy books ever seen the light of day. Humanity is the miracle on earth, cherish it.
@Miss India aka Indhira, I am just curious about your anger towards Maldives which I have observed from your past comments on Minivan. Please sound out so we can create a better understanding. Peace!
@coral, does a racist need an explanation?
@khadija
please check and read Aquran caerefully
# Surra Annur: 31
# Surra Alahzab: 59
It is COMPULSORY for muslimah to wear hijab
@wives and concubines
So uhm, rape only occurs in Islamic countries?
And yes portrayal of women is extremely disturbing in some of these alleged scholars,but Child abuse is unfortunately prevalent around the world, Whether its Europe or South America or Asia,
And bringing up child marriages which happened 1400 years ago is fairly redundant, when.. sigh, just look up average life expectancy of even 300 years ago, around 30 for both men and women, and women often die from child birth because of extremely poor medical care available at time. And no Islam, as does other religions allows marriages, not child marriages per say, because the concept of being a "child" was only for an extremely limited amount of time, and guess what
the first early colonies in America had recorded marriages of girls 9 years old and that was in the 17th century
And the earliest definition of the age of consent was in the 12th Century in Europe.
Child marriages and child abuse is an extremely horrible and dreadful thing, and Its extremely deceptive of you and people like you to plainly point fingers at islam as its the source of this. THE WHOLE WORLD had unfortunately done it,
But the real Issue here is RAPE and child abuse, not Marriage, or Islam.
Rape happens All over the world, its not given its fair due for the horrible crime that is, even in extremely developed wealthy countries (ie japan), rape and molestation is ridiculously prevalent,
and Maldives is a third world country, and we have a long way to go, and you pointing fingers at Islam for the existence of rape and child abuse as the root cause of this, is extremely dishonest, deceptive and from where im around theres a word for people like you Starts with a 'C' and ends with a 'T',
(and nope its not Cant)
If a muslimmah does not wear the hijab she does not benefit from the protection modesty bestows.
Men should control themselves also but there is a reason God expects the weaker sex to be more modest in clothing and to cover her hair. Why is this such a difficult concept?
Anyway, this was told to us by God so there should be no debate or scrutiny on the matter.
@Just simple muslimah
I have. There is nothing in either that say we have to wear the hijaab. thats YOUR interpretation.
@wives and concubines on Thu, 23rd Aug 2012 6:21 PM
Precisely the point. Logically, there is no way that the ways of life 1400 years ago, can be followed as the ultimate guide for the wall of life of man kind.
Religions are b*&^*&^t!
I am sure this poor child was modestly dressed and wearing the hijab when she was abused.
When will muslims face up to the fact that underage marriage is wrong and end this evil practice?
But hey, you are sunni muslims.....the 'real 24 carat muslims', the 'true believers' and God's chosen people.....and also the most intolerant people in the world today.....this 100% muslim nation ideology and persecution of the 'wrong' type of muslims (Ahmadiyas, shias, sufis etc)is proof of this.
Any attempt to change your archaic sharia based laws is met with fierce opposition from the hysterical ranting mullahs.....the same lunatics who thought it was a great idea to destroy your preislamic heritage in the museums.
Take the example of the blasphemy law in Pakistan.....land of your sunni brothers. Hell needs to freeze over before this odious law is repealed.....it is a great tool to harrass, terrify and persecute non muslims.
Your intolerant and inflexible faith seriously hampers your development as a progressive people.
We Indians have so much to teach you primitive islanders.
What would people blame except for Men and Irresponsible Parenting, after all the women, girls and infants have worn the full hijab?
Before you Indians (Hindus) start teaching anything to us, why don't you first start acting like humans and being a bit logical.....like quit praying to pieces of stones and eating cow s*&t...
We Maldivians have so much to teach you primitive "anything" worshipers... including your own droppings.. . 😀
Kill the jews
Kill the hindus
Kill the americans
Kill the apostates
Kill the blasphemers
Kill the shias, ahmadiyas and sufis
Kill the prostitutes and rent boys
Kill the homosexuals and transsexuals
Kill anybody who insults the prophet
Kill anybody who insults the koran
Kill anybody who does not subscribe to your hate filled religion
Holy Krishna!!
We Indians have so much to teach you primitive islanders