Letter on wedding tourism and liquor permits

Dear Editor,

Last few weeks have been a real test about what some quarters of the Maldivian community deem as irreligious – same sex relations, liquor permits and Christian weddings.

In a recent press conference the minister of tourism was asked whether he was thinking of allowing ‘wedding tourism’ in the country to which the minister answered in the affirmative. The journalist asking the question also highlighted that the minister’s predecessor had decided that wedding tourism was not for us Maldivians as it would have meant the allowing of non-Muslim weddings to take place on (Muslim) Maldivian soil. Listening to this dialogue it appeared to me that the journalist asking the question was oblivious to the fact that now we are allowing non-married couples to visit the country and commit ziney (fornication out of wedlock, and considered haraam in Shariah and Maldivian law) as the country’s tourism laws and regulations do not require visiting tourist couples to be married, let alone to be Muslims.

Out of the more than 600,000 tourists visiting the Maldives every year, most are couples who reside in private bungalows or rooms where they are left alone to do what takes their fancy, including sexual intercourse. And they have well stocked mini-bars to boot. To me it does not make sense not to allow non-Muslims to be married on Maldivian soil, if at the moment the situation is as described above. What harm does it cause to us Maldivians if we allow non-Muslims to be married on Maldivian soil, when on that same soil we are allowing non-Muslims to have sex outside marriage, drink alcohol, display their nudity or be scantily dressed – all on the same Maldivian soil throughout the country?

Another issue that recently made headlines was that of the government’s consideration of allowing the serving of liquor and alcohol products on the recently opened Holiday Inn in Male. The moment the ministry of trade and economic development – the government authority mandated with giving out liquor licenses for tourism purposes – broke the news of the consideration of permitting Holiday Inn to serve liquor, there were several statements issued to the media from groups who claimed they were defending religion in the Maldives.

At the moment, the tourism regulations and law does not allow liquor to be served on tourism establishments based on inhabited islands. The premise here being that liquor will not be served on islands where Maldivian communities reside as it may serve as an incentive and encouragement for Muslim Maldivian’s to consume alcohol. However, the definition of an inhabited island may need some revision after more than three decades of tourism in the country given the mixed results the policy seems to have achieved so far.

Maldives has followed a policy of ‘one resort, one island’ since tourism arrived in the country in the early seventies. Tourists have dress codes and many other guidelines to follow and special permits to be taken if visiting inhabited islands. Similarly, the Maldivian staff who work on these resorts have two lives to relate to; that on the resort and that with the rest of the Maldivian community. The average resort employee works 10 to 11 months on the resort. This leaves roughly one month out of every year to be with his family on the island where he is registered (the island to which he is seen as ‘belonging’). This raised serious questions as to the definition of an inhabited island for the purposes of allowing liquor to be served.

We could assume that the underlying assumption of the ‘one resort, one island’ concept is to ‘protect’ Maldivians from any corrupting influences the tourists may have on Maldivians. It stems from the Islamic ideology that Maldivians have enshrined as the primary source and cornerstone of the Maldivian constitution and ensuing laws. In the constitution, any Maldivians using liquor or choosing to fray from the tenets of Islam is punishable in various ways, including the negation of Maldivian citizenship. Hence, they have created a marvelous way to deny the rights they are willing to give to the 600,000 plus visitors coming to the Maldives every year as tourists. Other than the use of liquor, Maldivians cannot even choose which religion to believe in. And to me this is ridiculous as it assumes that Maldivians are never mature enough to be able to choose right from wrong. It is all the more laughable when we know thousands of expatriate workers are sold alcohol under a permit given by the government. These expatriates, mind you, do not reside in some island allocated specially for them, but live on Male and other inhabited islands. And given the living conditions in Male and in other atolls, mostly they reside in houses or buildings where several other Maldivian families including children live. Giving a license to sell liquor in Holiday Inn or other city hotel or guest house will not do anything more harmful than what is happening right now, right here.

Best wishes,

Ahmed Fahmy