Category: Society & Culture

Authorities warn of looming AIDS pandemic

The Health Ministry has warned of the spread of AIDS in the Maldives after an expatriate prostitute tested positive for HIV.

At a press conference yesterday, Dr Ahmed Jamsheed Mohamed, senior medical officer at the centre for community health and disease control, said prostitutes from neighbouring countries were working in the Maldives on tourist visas.

“We have some evidence now that expatriate women who came to the Maldives without a work permit on a tourist visa are involved in prostitution,” he said. “We learned that one of them was HIV positive.”

While the authorities required  medical checkups for expatriates who apply for work permits, he said, foreigners on tourist visas were not tested.

246 foreigners on work permits have been sent out of the country after testing positive since 1995, an average of 15 a day.

He added the authorities discovered the expatriate prostitute was HIV positive when she applied for a work permit.

Jamsheed said it was likely that there were more prostitutes with HIV who work at massage parlours and appealed to the public to be aware of the risks of visiting local brothels.

Prostitutes from China and Russia working in Sri Lanka often come to the Maldives when their tourist visa expires, he continued, while prostitutes in the Maldives visit Sri Lanka to re-enter the country on a new tourist visa.

“There’s a rotating group between Ceylon and Maldives,” he said. “We believe there must be a lot of HIV positive people among them.”

If AIDS begins to spread in the country, he added, there was no reason to believe it could be controlled.

Jamsheed said HIV in the Maldives was like a ticking time bomb: “Everything necessary for the disease to spread exists among us.”

A recent survey on AIDS revealed all the behavioural risks contributing to the spread of HIV, such as promiscuity, prostitution, homosexuality, rape, child abuse and sharing needles, were “widespread” in the country.

Jamsheed said responsibility had to be taken at an individual, societal and government level to avoid the country “reaching that critical stage”.

Although the survey was based on a small sample of the population, since its release one Maldivian had been found HIV positive and it was likely that more would be discovered. There are over 30 Maldivians with HIV, according to estimates said Dr Jamsheed.

Of the 14 people with AIDS known to the authorities ten have passed away, three are undergoing treatment while the others’ condition had not deteriorated to require treatment.

Asked whether recommendations in the study, such promoting the use of condoms and making clean disposal syringes available to drug addicts could be implemented in the Maldives, Jamsheed said both strategies have been successfully deployed overseas.

“The question is whether they can be brought in to our society with our Islamic principles and values,” he said, adding that the National AIDS Council had to discuss the issues.

Dr Ali Nazeem, in charge of treating HIV patients, said more voluntary counselling and testing centres (VTCs) would be established in the near future, while testing was already available in regional hospitals.

Testing is currently available at ADK hospital and the police VTC.

He added the centres will maintain anonymity and the test results would be confidential.

Earlier this week, drugs NGO Journey opened a VTC with more than 20 volunteers to offer counselling.

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Imam among seven men arrested for homosexual activity

A group of men, including an imam, were arrested in Alif Alif atoll Maalhos on Thursday after photos and videos emerged of the seven engaged in homosexual activity.

An islander who spoke on condition of anonymity told Minivan News a group of teenagers from the island came upon the video CDs in the house of one of the suspects. When the CDs began to be circulated in public, the “island elders” alerted police.

“It came as a big shock to everyone on the island to see that [the imam] was one of them. He gives the Friday sermons at the mosque every week,” he said. “He is a well respected person on the island and we saw him as our religious leader.”

Besides the imam, the pornographic videos featured a mosque caretaker, a carpenter and another man the islanders believe to be mentally unstable, the islander claimed.

“He is a deranged person. We have always seen him running around the island naked,” he said.

Of the three men not featured in the video, two were incriminated in photos found along with the videos, he continued, while the third was believed to have filmed the pornography.

Three of the suspects were married with children, the islander said, while one of them included a second, retired imam. The youngest of the seven men was aged 27, while the rest were over 45 years of age, he said.

Miadhu reported other islanders as claiming that two of the seven men consider themselves “as husband and wife.”

Sergeant Ahmed Shiyam from the Maldives Police Service confirmed the arrests were made on Thursday following a report from the islanders. The seven men are currently in police custody. All were residents of Maalhos.

A spokesperson for the Islamic Ministry said they were not yet aware of the case and could not speculate on any measures that could be taken. Meanwhile Abdullah bin Mohamed Ibrahim, President of Islamic NGO Salaf Jamiya, also said he was unable to comment as they did not have complete information on the case.

Under the existing penal provisions, the punishment for sodomy is 19 to 39 lashes, banishment or imprisonment of up to three years.

Another islander from Maalhos who spoke to Minivan News said a group of people had become suspicious of the seven men before the videos came out.

“They have been following them around for a long time now,” he said. “They were suspicious before, and the videos just confirmed it.”

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Police trace online stalker

Police have traced the internet connection of a man who allegedly threatened a 14-year-old girl online in an attempt to coerce her into “sexually indecent” behaviour.

“The perpetrator tried to demand the girl go to somewhere, and that he had photos and videos of her he would leak if she did not,” said Police Sergeant Shiyam.

Police said officers were initially approached by concerned friends of the girl during a school session on child abuse run by the family and child protection unit.

An investigation involving the police’s digital evidence unit tracked the man’s internet connection to his room, where police discovered three hard disks, two multimedia cards and two pen drives containing chat logs and emails threatening the girl.

“We are investigating how long it had been going on; we were lucky we found out about it so early,” Shiyam said.

The drives also contained nude photos and video clips of other young Maldivian girls, whom police said they were now trying to trace. Police said forensic evidence indicated that some of these photos had been uploaded to the internet.

The case has been forwarded to the Office of the Prosecutor General while police have released the perpetrator on a court order.

Investigating cases of online sexual abuse was “something new” for police, Shiyam said, “and something to be really concerned about.”

“Girls and boys are good at using the web and it’s not that easy to control and monitor them.”

Jeehan Mahmoud, spokesperson for Human Rights Commission Maldives (HRCM), said the Commission hoped that if found guilty the perpetrator would be charged under parliament’s new child abuse legislation that extends sentencing periods to a maximum of 25 years.

“Secondly, we want the concerned authorities to monitor the impact of multimedia on this type of crime more closely,” she said. “The Commission believes internet monitoring needs to be considered – it is something the state is obligated to do.”

Parents also needed to monitor their children’s use of the internet, she added. “Definitely parents need to be aware of what their children have access to. There hasn’t yet been a report into online [child abuse], but as it’s a growing trend perhaps it’s time to look into it further and find a way to curb it before it gets any bigger,” she said.

The Commission has received 10 reports of child abuse this year compared to four in the previous year, Jeehan said, “although it is difficult to say whether this due to an increase in reporting. People have certainly become better educated about human rights during the last four years.”

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More mules arrested in latest drug bust

Police have taken two Maldivians into custody at Male’ airport after receiving information from India that the pair were carrying drugs.

Twenty-five year-old Nishana Rasheed of M. Lansimoog and a 17-year-old girl travelling with her were detained by customs officers after arriving in Male’ from Trivandrum in India.

Searching their bags, officers discovered 1.3 kilograms of hash oil in polythene bags wrapped up inside bed sheets. A further search of the women found over 100 grams of heroin concealed on their
persons.

The total street value of the drugs would have been more than Rf400,000 (US$31,000), estimated Sergeant Shiyam from the Maldives Police Service.

“We would consider anything more than a kilogram to be a large bust,” Shiyam said.

The use of drug mules to get contraband into the country is a growing trend, according to the Maldivian Customs Service.

Last month four Maldivians also travelling back from Trivandrum were detained after over a kilogram of hash oil was found in cardboard boxes in their luggage.

Nishana Rasheed
Nishana Rasheed, suspected drug mule

The two men and two women claimed the boxes were given to them to bring to Male’ by another Maldivian in Trivandrum.

In April an elderly couple were detained after customs discovered them carrying a casserole dish containing more than a kilogram of heroin. They had also travelled from Trivandrum.

The prosecutor general has since charged Hussain Mohamed Manik of H. Rehi for his involvement in the crime.

President Mohamed Nasheed revealed in May that the identities of the country’s top six drug kingpins were known to the government, but said arrests could not be made before the parliamentary elections in case they were thought to be politically motivated.

Police meanwhile has appealed to travellers to inspect the contents of packages given to them by other people before travelling, as they would “have to bear full responsibility for anything in their luggage or possession.”

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Gang muggings net large haul

Last week a man was stabbed and robbed of Rf400,000 (over US$30,000) by a gang who attacked him at the Gadiburu roundabout near Orchid Magu in central Male’.

The previous month a pair of men were attacked with iron rods by a gang who then stole a bag containing Rf762,700 (US$60,000).

Four men were arrested by police in relation to that incident, including an underage boy, although the perpetrators of the latest assault are yet to be found.

Police Sergeant Ahmed Shiyam said store owners carrying large amounts of cash at night following the close of business were particularly at risk.

“Some businesses carry around a very big amount of money [after they close],” he said. “We’re trying to give the message that business and local residents should be careful about carrying such large amounts money.”

Shiyam said in some cases businesses were putting large amounts of money into bags and then leaving them on motorbikes, a practice he described as “very careless”.

One storekeeper, the manager of a shop selling souvenirs to tourists near Republican Square, said the incidents were generating concern among local businesses.

“It’s not very common and for this to happen recently with two incidents so close together is unbelievable and very harmful. The amount of money [stolen] is huge,” he said.

“We don’t carry large amounts of money because most of our transactions are by card – it’s much safer,” he added.

Shiyam said while police had yet to apprehend anybody in relation to the most recent incident, the investigation of last month’s mugging had linked previous cases to the same people.

Businesses needing to carry large amounts of money from one location to another could ask for police assistance, he added.

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Comment & Analysis: Me sheikh, you woman

What would you think if US President Barack Obama were to appoint Benjamin Netanyahu as his special advisor to the Israel-Palestine conflict right after his speech offering an unclenched hand in friendship to the Muslim world? It would be a move that makes as much sense as President Nasheed’s recent appointment of Sheikh Hussain Rasheed Ahmed as the minister of state for home affairs.

The ministry is in charge of the police and defence forces – the maintenance of law and order in the Maldivian society. Its portfolio includes the treatment of prisoners. Was it not recently that Sheikh Rasheed voiced his wishes for re-introduction of capital punishment and amputation into the Maldivian penal code? And did President Nasheed not fundamentally disagree with Sheikh Rasheed’s position?

What confounds logic even more is that President Nasheed is putting Sheikh Rasheed in a leadership role in a ministry which says that shaping the social fabric of the nation is part of its mission and remit. An examination of the social fabric that Sheikh Rasheed would like the Maldives to be clothed in shows it to be of a cut and design that is hardly tailor-made for a democracy, to put it mildly.

Adhaalathian Utopia

For Sheikh Rasheed’s Adhaalath Party wants a Maldivian society in which there would be not just capital punishment, amputation and flogging. It would also be a patriarchal society that would function according to something called the ‘natural order’ of things. The natural order, Fate, Karma, God’s Preordained Blueprint for Life, or whatever one might like to think of it as, is one in which men and women are quite irrevocably different from each other.

The main proof lies in the biological make-up. Male and female reproductive organs are different. For those who cite biology as the reason for man’s superiority, the reproductive organs also testify to man’s mental superiority over women. One might ask whether, by the same logic, it follows that the intellectual superiority accorded on the basis of biological differences mean that it is these reproductive organs that are put to use when such men need their mental faculties to function – but one should not be so supercilious in one’s attitude towards such learned, scholarly dignitaries, so let us move on.

Even a perfunctory empirical examination of the societal idyll that Adhaalath Party has outlined for the Maldives, in their various publications online, renders one aghast that the leader of this party has now been appointed to a position that would allow for such thinking to be actualised. There is plenty of material to choose from, but the focus of this article is on the place women are to have in this ‘Adhaalathian Utopia’.

Women are equal to men, says Adhaalath. When it comes to domestic violence, that is. Take for example Lorena Bobbitt who in 1993 cut off her cheating husband’s ‘male organ’, as Adhaalath so very delicately put it. Rather than being a one off incident (excuse the pun), for the Adhaalath party it is representative of womankind as a whole, and shows just how wrong it is for women to claim such an ‘entitlement’ to victimhood in domestic abuse.

Now weigh this against the World Development Report of the same year which stated that ‘violence causes more death and disability worldwide amongst women aged 15-44 than war, cancer, malaria or traffic accidents’. Or measure it against the fact that 70 per cent of women experience violence from men in their lifetime or the fact that ‘at least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime with the abuser usually someone known to her’.

No matter, the enraged Mrs Bobbitt’s impromptu surgery on the very part of the philandering Mr Bobbitt’s anatomy that stood as testament to his superiority proved beyond any reasonable doubt that these ‘notions’ of ‘victimhood’ that women entertain are just silly female ideas that have no place in ‘the natural order of things’.

“Somewhere around Bombay”

Similarly, women cannot honestly claim to have no equality when it comes to rape either. For Adhaalath – without reference to any source material – provides ample ‘proof’ that this is simply not the case. One Adhaalath commentator, for example, tells his readers of having spotted a headline in capital letters [if it is in capital letters, then surely it must be true] in some newspaper somewhere in a remote part of India that a group of women used to phone a hapless doctor to come make house calls only to be gang-raped by a group of female ‘patients’ when he arrived at the door.

Adhaalath can also inform readers that ‘somewhere in or around Bombay’, sometime in 1989, another group of women gang-raped a boy who died in their violent sexually-depraved hands. These are not isolated cases – although they do appear to be concentrated ‘somewhere around Bombay’ – for there was another case where a farmer was raped by a group of horny women whose violent sexual machinations robbed the poor farmer of his life.

‘These incidents should be viewed as discriminatory, bigoted ideas about women being victims of sexual violence at the hands of men. Men are suffering on a similar scale at the not-so-delicate hands of women. ‘It is an injustice in itself to think that women alone are victims of violence in this world’. No one is claiming this to be the case, but then again why listen to these ridiculous ‘Western notions’ in their entirety?

Anyway, the only reason that studies and figures from world organizations investigating such matters are mainly concerned with women’s victimhood is probably because they have failed to include this particular area ‘somewhere around Bombay’ in their data collection and analyses. Ah, the laxness of research these days.

Now that it has been established it would be wrong for anyone to think that Adhaalath Party is of the opinion that men and women are entirely unequal, let us return to the ‘natural order’ according to which the ‘Adhaalathian Utopia’ would function. It is a picture best painted in the words of Adhaalath itself – no one else could render it quite so evocatively as their writers, nor be as eloquent in the depiction of their vision for a new Maldivian society.

The following is an extract of a publication by on the role of women in society. The Adhaalath material is an abridged translation from an article that appeared on the Adhaalath website in July 2008.

“The ‘natural order’ is one in which men and women simply cannot be equal. This is as natural and irrefutable a fact as the earth revolving around the sun. Human lifestyle is based around the very same natural order, the same organizing principles as those found in nature.”

(…)

“All human life is run according to this ‘natural order’. The problem that we are confronted with today is that there are an increasing number of people trying to upset the system. The main problem is the increasingly loud voices of ‘certain people working for women’s independence who insist in calling for gender equality’. ‘These people’ are claiming that men and women are equal! ‘This is absolutely and completely against the natural order’ of the world. This policy has devalued the family by destroying the family structure that forms the very foundation of society.”

(…)

“It makes absolutely no sense that the family should be exempt from the rules of management that apply to any other business – a manager is appointed to run the show and the minions follow him. To appoint the husband as the director/manager of the family is not to say that the wife is inferior, nor is it to say that the husband is superior. The husband should be in charge of planning, strategizing and running the business of family – this is the natural order of things, and what God intended. Just like He intended the earth to revolve around the sun, and that night should follow day.”

“Should we listen to ‘those people’ agitating for equality between men and women, catastrophe and destruction will follow. For appointing the husband the head of a family is as natural as appointing a boss over employees, a prime minister over ministers – this is only a matter of practical and administrative concern, not a suggestion of superiority of one person or group over another.”

“In terms of status, men and women are equal; both sexes deserve equal respect. Sometimes women are even more equal than men. It’s just that they need guidance and supervision of men without which they would be helplessly bumbling about, trying to make sense of a world without order.”
(…)

“This is the main problem of modern times. According to notions of equality fostered by modernity, men and women rushed into employment together. This has led to increasing unemployment because it deprived men of their [God-given] rightful place in the labour force. Once women forgot their place at home the so-called problem of unemployment arose. There is no tangible development or benefit to be seen from women having joined the workforce.”

(…)

“Now that they have joined the workforce, nothing is being done at home. As a direct consequence, the whole society is rife with problems. This is the real reason behind such mayhem: women forgot their place in the natural order.”

What (or should I say, with what) possibly could President Nasheed have been thinking? Can anyone see the logic behind his appointment of the learned Sheikh Rasheed as state minister for home affairs in light of such ‘enlightened’ policy his party espouses? No doubt that Sheikh Rasheed is popular and that he is ‘the great Islamic scholar’ that his 194-strong Facebook fan-base tells us he is. But, what place does the kind of thinking espoused by his Adhaalath Party have in a democracy? By giving him such a portfolio, President Nasheed is upholding policies and ideas that should be anathema to a democracy. Shame. And here we were almost convinced by those learned men that timidity is an entirely female characteristic.

Munirah Moosa is a journalism and international relations graduate. She is currently engaged in research into the ‘radicalisation’ of Muslim communities and its impact on international security.

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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Maldives struggles to obtain swine flu vaccine

The Maldives may have difficulty acquiring a vaccine believed to be effective against the H1N1 virus, despite it being produced nearby.

“There are a limited number of companies producing the vaccine, and global vaccine production is pretty low. There’s not enough to meet demand,” said Dr Ahmed Jamsheed Mohamed from the Centre for Community Health and Disease (CCHD).

“Neighbouring countries are producing the vaccine, but it is going to the West,” he claimed. “That’s part of a global issue that existed before swine flu, but it means there a difference between who needs and who gets the vaccine.”

The Maldives has developed a vaccine deployment plan, prioritising healthcare staff, however, nobody has yet been immunised.

There is no indication that wearing a surgical mask, now a common sight around the capital Male’, could protect people from flu infections, he said.

“If worn properly the masks can prevent transmission by people who are symptomatic because it eliminates the droplets,” he said.

“But when you walk around Male’ you see people wearing them like fashion statements, on their chin or forehead – this has no effect at all and probably adds to the problem.”

Temporary flu clinic opens

In response to a rising number of flu patients at Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH), the government has established a temporary hospital in Nasandhura Palace Hotel.

Jamsheed said the clinic was intended to relieve the pressure on IGMH staff with the onset of the flu season.

The clinic will provide anti-viral drug Tamiflu to patients who test positive to Influenza A, he said. Tamiflu is used to treat the virus but the drug is not an effective preventative.

“If we are suspicious that it could be the H1N1 (swine flu) virus we will start the patient on Tamiflu without delay,” Jamsheed said, adding that the country’s current stockpile of 2,500 adult doses “is sufficient”.

Thirty-four patients have tested positive for Influenza A so far, according to the ministry of health and family.

Of those patients 12 tested positive for the H1N1 ‘swine flu’ virus. One of them, a 65 year-old man from Raa Atoll, became the first Maldivian to die from the disease on 19 November.

The remaining 11 were treated and have since been released, Jamsheed said.

The World Health Organisation reports that over 1,000 people are now dying a week from the virus.

However Jamsheed noted that “the mortality rate of swine flu and seasonal flu is pretty much the same, although it depends on the country and things like socioeconomic factors.”

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Expat doctors deserting Maldives

Expatriate doctors are deserting the Maldives because of poor facilities and uncertainty over their pay, according to a doctor working at Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH).

“We’ve lost five expat doctors in the internal medicine department in the last four months,” said Dr Ibrahim Shiham. “Only one has been replaced, and from an island so not a new recruit.”

Foreign medical staff are vital to the country’s health services and comprise 85 per cent of the country’s doctors, according to Shiham, most of whom come from India with some from Nepal and Pakistan.

Many are showing reluctance to renew their contracts, Shiham claimed, because the latest round of cuts to government salaries have added to the uncertainty that followed the efforts to standardise civil servant renumeration in January.
“What actually happened was a lot of pay scales were streamlined, and doctors’ basic salary, including allowances, was ultimately down 30 to 40 per cent. So what [the government] did was invent another allowance to take it to the original break-even level. But the extra allowance has no legal standing, and in theory doctor’s salaries got a major decrease.”

With their salaries “propped up and not in the rulebook”, many expatriate doctors “started talking about leaving and looking for other opportunities,” according to Shiham.

“People who’ve been working [in IGMH] for 14-15 years have begun leaving in the last four months,” he added, when their contracts come up for renewal – something he says was rare in the past. “They realised that once they sign the contract there’s not much they can do [if the allowance is withdrawn].”

Deputy Director of the Health Ministry, Abdul Samad Abdul Rahman, said three specialists and six medical officers had left the Maldives in the last two months, and that replacements were declining offers because of the lower wages. CEO of IGMH, Zubair Mohamed, meanwhile told daily newspapers Haveeru that departures from the hospital were a “normal occurrence” and that “doctors are always leaving because their contract has expired.”

Because of its reliance on expatriates staff, particularly from India, the Maldives is also competing with the burgeoning Indian medical sector to attract staff.

“Even in Indian government hospitals, which have to compete with the private sector, a medical officer in Delhi undergoing training would get 52,000 Indian rupees, around 16,000 -17,000 Rf,” Shiham said.

Moreover, Male in particular was proving an unattractive destination for foreign staff because of high living costs and the need to leave families behind. The lack of facilities was also professionally unsatisfying, a particular issue for attracting senior staff, he explained.

“Here [at IGMH] I am only able to do 30-40 per cent of what I am trained to do because of a lack of facilities – out on an island, maybe five percent. Even equipment for kidney biopsies or needle for taking bone marrow samples. Doctors’ skills are underutilised and referrals overseas are common practice.”

Impact

The loss of medical staff is placing pressure on those who remain and affecting the amount of time doctors have to see patients, Shiham said.

The rule is we see four patients an hour, 15 minutes for each,” he said. “If we start seeing a patient every 5-6 minutes, then the patient is not being seen properly, even if he might be happy he’s seen a doctor. The level of documentation will also go down, and that will later attract a lot of litigation. The patient loses, the doctor loses and the system loses.”

Appointments were starting to being made through contacts, a situation Shiham describes as “embarrassing.” The pressure to thin the growing queues of patients was also leading to staff being recalled from other critical roles.

“I cannot stomach it when a medical officer is pulled off ICU (intensive care) to see a few more flu patients just because people are starting to shout outside. We don’t have a doctor on duty 24/7 in our critical care unit,” he said.

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Contentious article of Child Sexual Abuse Act to be reassessed

The president’s office has said it will reassess article 14 of the Child Sex Abuse (Special Provisions) Act, which some have argued could provide a means of evasion for paedophiles.

The long overdue Act categorises child sex offences for the first time in the Maldives and contains harsh sentences of up to 25 years for those convicted.

But under article 14, if an adult is legally married to a child under Islamic sharia, none of the offences specified in the Act will be considered a crime. 

Although the Act was ratified earlier this month, the contentious article has elicited a strong reaction from NGOs and children’s rights activists for potentially providing a loophole for child sexual abuse.

President’s Office Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair said today the government would reconsider the article as the Maldives was signatory to international treaties such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). 

“It’s a concern for us and the government will work to revise it and overturn it,” said Zuhair.

Loophole

Although MPs did not deliberate the contentious article during the parliamentary debate on the bill, it was brought to public attention on Thursday by Mansoor Ali, Unicef representative to the Maldives, and Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed.

“MPs like everyone are scared to approach any subject to do with religion and refute anything to do with religion,” explained Zuhair.

At an event to mark World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse, the vice president said he hoped article 14 would be re-examined. “If someone tried to take advantage of a loophole in the law to do this, it’s an even bigger crime,” he said.

Mansoor told Minivan News today that during his speech on Thursday, he appealed both to the government and to MPs to review the article, which he believed was in conflict with the CRC.

“I am not trying to challenge religion. My concern is that this goes against the spirit and content of the CRC,” he said.

He added the legislation should be linked to the Family Act, under which child marriage is admissible.

While the national age of marriage is 18 in the Maldives, as a Muslim country, girls below this age can marry with parental and state consent.

Child marriage

For many who Minivan News spoke to today regarding article 14, child marriage was the larger issue at stake. For the president, said Zuhair, child marriage was a matter of great concern.

Former Attorney General Azima Shukoor said she supported Unicef’s appeal for the article to be re-evaluated although not necessarily deleted.  
Azima said the chief judge of the family court had recently expressed concern about young girls being taken out of the Maldives for marriages which were not recognised inside the country.

“How can a 12 or 13-year-old give consent to being married? My concern is that it defeats a lot of the purpose of the bill,” she said.

In July, four local NGOs made recommendations to a parliamentary committee reviewing the bill.

In their recommendations, Maldivian Detainee Network, Rights for All, Madulu and Transparency Maldives, called for the removal of article 14.

The NGOs said that as consent for sex was required even within a marriage, any kind of non-consensual “touching” of a child should be considered an offence under the Act.

Family Act

But, MP for Kulhudhufushi South Mohamed Nasheed, who submitted the bill, told Minivan News today, that legislation could not “encroach into a lawful marriage”.

As underage marriages are permitted, “child marriage cannot be put under a child sexual abuse bill,” he said, adding that there was no legislation for marital rape in the Maldives.

Nasheed said that it would be necessary to find out the number of underage marriages and how many of them were to children below the age of 16.

“If it’s a serious concern and we realise there are people marrying young children for a short time for a certain purpose, then we have to revise the Family Act,” said Nasheed.

In agreement was Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed, state minister for Islamic affairs, who said article 14 was not in conflict with the law.

While the ministry would strive to combat child abuse, he said, underage marriage was legal in the Maldives.

“The principle in Islam is that the child has to mature physically and sexually and there has to be the financial means to look after the family,” said Shaheem.

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