Maldivian women are seldom seen by visitors to the Maldives, High Commissioner of the Maldives to the UK Dr Farahanaz Faizal has told BBC Radio 4, for the station’s ‘Women’s Hour’ program.
Dr Faizal and Olympic rower Guin Batten – who recently set a record for the ‘zero degree’ crossing in the Maldives and is trying to reintroduce rowing to the country – were interviewed yesterday by journalist Jane Garvey.
Dr Faizal explained that since the introduction of tourism to the Maldives, women tended to stay on their home islands to look after their families while the men went away to work on the resorts: “There is also little in the way of commuting on the islands so it’s not easy to travel to resorts to work on a daily basis. This has meant that women no longer have the economic empowerment they used to have,” she said.
Reiterating her comment last week in the UK House of Parliament that religious extremism was “among the greatest threats to democracy in the Maldives”, Dr Faizal suggested that the rise of extremism in the Maldives was attributable to people being allowed to vocalise their views more in the new liberal democracy, “whereas in the previous autocratic regime – who were by no means radical, they were quite liberal actually – they were simply locked up.”
Garvey raised the issue of the flogging of a young girl for adultery in the Maldives in 2009 and asked whether this was still occurring in the Maldives.
“No not really,” Dr Faisal said. “The penal code hasnt changed for decades, and a new penal code is in the process of being revised. The judges applied the old penal code that does include some sharia punishments.”
“What was more horrifying was that although the girl got flogged, the man got away ‘scott free’. If there are penalties against people for this sort of thing then they must be treated equally and there is no excuse when we now have DNA testing. After I raised this issue in the Maldives they (the radicals) called for my head.”
The Maldives, Dr Faizal said, had historically been “a very forward-looking Muslim country: we’ve had queens and female football commentators, I don’t think even Premier League can beat that.”
Dr Faizal noted that former Attorney General Husnu Suood had expressed concern that radicals had been calling for female genital mutilation in the Maldives, and telling people to avoid vaccinations as they contained alcohol. “Although this a small minority it is growing and we have to tackle this now.”
Garvey also interviewed Batten, former schoolfriend of President Mohamed Nasheed and Sports Coordinator for UK-based NGO Friends of Maldives, who explained that she had been inspired to bring rowing back to the Maldives after seeing a picture of a Maldivian boy rowing a home-made raft.
“Rowing is a very popular sport for girls around the world especially in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Rowing was [historically] used in the Maldives as a method of transport,” she explained.
Dr Faizal noted that rowing competitions used to be held in the Maldives, and that the challenge was being taken up by the local community and not imposed upon them.
The Rowing Association of Maldives, based in Addu Atoll, this week became the 131st member of the International Rowing Federation (FISA).
Batten and Dr Faizal spoke to BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour program November 9 2010. Listen to the podcast.
Correction: An earlier version of this report quoted Dr Faizal as saying the Maldives had a new penal code. She actually stated that the new code was being revised.
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