Four female detainees arrested on March 19 have accused police of sexual harassment, in audio and written statements obtained by Minivan News. Police officers allegedly tore women’s clothes during arrest and ordered female detainees to strip and squat multiple times at Dhoonidhoo Island detention center, according to the statements.
“I was ordered to strip naked and then told to squat three times. I told them I don’t use drugs. But they told me to squat to see if there was a lighter or foil inside my anus,” Yusra Hussein, 22, said.
“Two policewomen held me by the neck of my dress. They tore my dress. They wanted to take it off me. They wanted to undress me. They told me ‘We will undress you. We will beat you up,’” Areesha Ali said, describing her arrest.
According to Article 33 of the Police Powers Act, police can only conduct intimate or strip searches if officers have reasonable grounds to believe a detainee may cause physical injury to themselves or others, or is concealing drugs.
The four women were arrested on Malé’s Sosun Magu during a Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) organised demonstration to obstruct Majlis’ opening session on March 19. Police arrested 99 people during the protests. The women claimed to be peaceful protestors, but said they were charged with breaking through police barricades. There was no mention of drug offences or concealed weaponry.
Aishath Aniya of the MDP’s Women’s Spirit, who was also arrested on the same day, told Minivan News that strip searches were only conducted on women detainees. The MDP estimates 17 women were arrested on March 19. MDP women have been at the forefront of several protests in the past month.
“These women came out to protest. They have no police records. They were not intoxicated. There is no connection between strip searches and protesting. There is no other name for this but sexual harassment,” Aniya told Minivan News.
Police Spokesperson Hassan Haneef denied sexual harassment claims and said all search procedures were conducted according to the law. He said the women had been arrested for inciting violence, and advised detainees to lodge grievances with the police, the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) and the Police Integrity Commission (PIC).
Harassment, verbal abuse and strip search
Women were exposed and clothes were torn off to varying degrees during arrest, the four women claimed. At Dhoonidhoo detention centre, women were asked to strip and squat. In some cases, the police are said to have checked under breasts and touched genitalia. At 2:00am on March 20, police officers wanted to conduct a second strip search, but stopped only when Aniya told the police they had no authority to conduct a second search, the statements claim.
MDP activist Yusra Hussein said police officers approached her as she stood outside the MDP office on Sosun Magu.
“Three police officers held me from behind under my arm pits. I told them they were hurting me and that I would go peacefully with them. I did not resist arrest. I only resisted when they started hurting me. My dress had lifted in the process, I was uncovered. I was very embarrassed,” she said.
Two boys passing by called on the police to cover Yusra, but they were arrested as well, she said. “When I started to resist, the police pepper-sprayed me, dragged me on the ground, and twisted one of my breasts,” she said.
“I don’t know what happened after the pepper-spray. I woke up in the police ambulance. A police officer was pressing hard on my chest. I found it very hard to breathe. I was hand-cuffed. I started thrashing, my leg hit a policeman. They cuffed my legs as well. I told them I was in pain. But they said ‘You dog, we will kill you today.’ They were very verbally abusive. They insulted my mother and father,” Yusra said.
Areesha Ali also alleged physical and verbal abuse during arrest. In addition to having her dress torn, she said her two daughters were also exposed and arrested when they tried to intervene.
“They [police] dragged my children on the street, their clothes were in disarray, they were exposed. The police hit us with batons, with their shields, with their boots,” she said. “They pepper-sprayed me. My eyes were shut. But I could hear what they said to my daughter. They said, ‘We don’t know if this is a man or a woman. Let’s get her onto the black bus and undress her to see if she’s a man or not.’ This is the kind of abuse they said. What right do they have?”
“I will never forgive them. They are inhuman, they are traitors. I would take them to court, but who is at the court? They are traitors as well. How can we get justice? If they keep beating people, more and more will come out with us,” she added.
Once at Dhoonidhoo, third detainee Fathimath Minna* said the police “told me they were going to do a body check. They asked me to take off my top and bra, which they inspected. They then asked me to take of my jeans and underwear, and I did so. They asked me to do three sit ups.”
Strip searches were conducted by female police officers. All women were also asked for a urine sample.
Aishath Aniya said, “The police officers were standing in front of the toilet. They did not allow any privacy. Afterwards, police officers told me to take off my shirt and bra. And then asked me to take my jeans off. Strip searches were done on all women. One woman detained with me said police checked under her breasts and touched her genitalia while she was squatting.”
The MDP will lodge complaints with the HRCM and PIC, Aniya said. The party is now collecting statements from all female detainees.
“We were exercising out right to peaceful protest,” Aniya said. “But we were treated like criminals. I think the point of strip-searching to that extent was to demean us, to lower our morale to make sure we don’t come out on the streets again.”
Women at the forefront
Women have been on the front line in MDP’s political movement to bring early elections, since the party’s candidate, former President Mohamed Nasheed was deposed in what the party calls a bloodless coup.
Amnesty International on March 1 condemned attacks on a group of women in Addu Atoll by the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF). The human rights organization said 20 women were charged by soldiers who wielded batons and used pepper spray, pushed them around, and kicked them on their legs and ribs.
“Detailed testimonies from the [group of 20 women] revealed no evidence of the [female] protesters being involved in any act of violence,” the statement read.
The MNDF and police used salt water cannons to break up a gathering of nearly 100 female supporters of MDP on March 6, outside President Office. They were delivering letters requesting the resignation of President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan. HRCM said the police and MNDF had used more force than necessary.
* Name changed on request
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These people are sick animals who is acting according to the constitution. You police buggers, you people are sick and crazy. A day will come soon, you all have to pay for you deeds. God knows everything. He's the supreme power, remember that.
mdp drama writers in full swing...
@Yasir et al. This is no drama, this is reality. The only drama is the propaganda on TV that the (so called obedient) population sitting at home is constantly subject to, while the reality goes on in our streets.This is a small country where everyone knows everyone. These are real people, suffering real abuse. These are real people, from all walks of life, uniting, asking for a real elected government and for their vote back.
" People's participation in social and political transformation is the central issue of our time. This can only be achieved through the establishment of societies which place human worth above power and liberation above control. In this paradigm development requires democracy, the genuine empowerment of the people." Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyii (if she doesn't know what she is talking about, then nobody does).And she knows all about the tactics of the Burmese generals that seem to be the role models for our present misguided government, intent on a policy of dehumanisation.
@yasir
MDP drama writers? this is what you call drama? women being sexually harassed is a drama for you? something you get off from your masochistic desire? you despicable man/ woman! what if these victims were your mother or sisters or even your daughter? or even a relative? shame on you and shame on those police officers!not a grain of humanity in you people!
human rights abuse. back to old golhaabo era.
These intimidation and harassment will not stop us. We will get back on the streets and practice our rights.
I guess Police don't think of what will happen after this life on earth. Insha Allah all our sisters will remain strong.
Yasir I wonder if you would sing the same song if your mother or sister had this experience, you poor excuse of a man.
What nonsense! According to the police act they can check your anus and other holes which they suspect that you are hiding something in. They had all the reasons to suspect people like you, YUSRA, in a situation like that. They have the right to exercise power to control you when you are out of the path.Be sane and moderate, ladies
Also, strip searches and police officers staying to make sure urine samples are not contaminated are procedures done across the globe. It may seem morally wrong but when carried out under regulations, laws, it is legal.
Here's something to think about. For some people, MDP people running like maniacs is morally wrong but for MDP people it is their right.
If you commit the crime (or near the crime and creating havoc), be ready to do the time (or be dragged down the system during investigation).
I am shocked and speechless.. don't know what to believe hoping that this is all untrue. but if this real then who did this will pay and must be put to justice. Police must stop this because it will ruin our country and police will not be able to control this.
yup. true story. we believe every word. every single word. after all... they are with MDP & this is published only on an MDP leaning website.
Ashamed to live with people who have no respect for women and enjoy cruelty towards them....! Only hardcore criminals can support such action.
Home Ministaer Jameel likes strip searches so much....... What are his excuses for these? I so much hope that the ladies who were strip searched was not captured on camera for the police to upload it to the www.
@Yasir we hear you. are you taking such pleasure in the brutalization of these women? you as the audience are just as sick as the people who've carried out these terrible abuses.
it is all completely true and you know it!
I find myself losing faith in the police/mndf as more and more time passes and this only goes to show that all our suspicions of these 'animals' as they've been called here are just that.
Insha Allah before long, each and every one of these people will meet their just and punishments and i for one would not plead on their behalf, be it a relative or a friend.
i hope and pray the perpetrators of this coup are revealed sooner rather than later and then all of these heinous people in such respected uniforms and positions will all be revealed. then it will be up to the people of Maldives to pass judgment on these people.
Home Minister Jameel loves strip searches so much...... I hope the ladies who were strip searched was not captured on camera for the police to distribute it on the www on a later date.
Don't get emotional people. Writers who write for minivan are professionals and they know how induce shock or horror in readers. I am not saying that things did not happen, but a writers sometimes spice up the story deliberately.
People like Dunya maumoon and Yumna maumoon, and Aneesa Ahmed ... And the religious freaks...The so called womens rights activists,gurdians of human rights, on public podiums. Where is your voice against these abuses.
Too shy to talk about this? or are you not aware of this? Or just because these women were protesting for a real cause? I have only one thing to say these abused women are the real heroes. And you all can just watch them make history.
I am shocked.. It cannot be true and I kindly request MDP not to spread lies
“We were exercising out right to peaceful protest, but we were treated like criminals.
This was happening in front of my eyes, and I believe protesters should understand the meaning of peace and I strongly advice them to practice exercise their right somewhere deserted not on the road. If I'm wrong can someone prove the meaning of exercising the rights of protests.
THIS IS NO DRAMATIZATION BY MDP. WHAT HAPPENED IN DHOONIDHOO CANNOT BE JUSTIFIED BY ANYONE. EVEN IF MAUMOON IS FUNDING THE EXISTENCE OF YOUR SORRY LIFE TRUTH WILL PREVAIL. WOMEN WERE TAKEN TO STRIP SEARCHES FOR 3-5 TIMES SOME OF THEM. WHAT ON EARTH, THIS IS BEYOND MDP DRP PPM, MALDIVIANS WAKE THE ... UP!
Back to dictatorship. The victims are so brave to come out and tell their story. I am so sorry they had to go through this. Hrcm please investigate and stop these brutal police.
This is NOT an MDP dramatization. Nobody can deny that, even if your sorry life is funded by Gayoom. What happened in Dhoonidhoo that day was inhumanity at its best. Women were being taken for several strip searches, 3-4 times on some detainees. This is BEYOND MDP, DRP, PPM, Adhaalath, ETC. MALDIVIANS WAKE UP!!!
I invite the ones who says its MDP dramas come join our rally's and get arrested you will get first hand experience of what we are talking about, I guess you wont like their fingers go up your anus looking for a bullet eh?
The woman in the picture passed out as officers tried to arrest her, she fell and the officers fell on top of her. While she was passed out they said she is alright cuff her she has a pulse. Even as she was carried to the ambulance she showed no sign of motion but they tried to cuff her again. No medical services were present just the police ambulance and one female officer kept saying she is faking it. I know as I took the picture.
My how things have changed since the 7th Feb. This country has taken a massive step backwards in terms of democracy, freedom of thought, the right to vote and women's rights!
The disgusting dictatorship has returned.
MNDF
Mutinuous National Defence FARCE
MPS Maldives Police Service
Mutinous Police Savages MPS
If you compare the days of police brutality during the 30 years of Maumoon,s dictatorship there is the similarity of police behavior.
@Simple. Actually some of them were photographed. Also none of the men we asked were searched like this.
This is horrible. I'm so sorry for what they did to you. PIC and HRCM will never find any fault with this. As they have failed their mandate.
We need the world community to help. We need Amnesty, Commonwealth, UN.
To any of you questioning if these testimonies are true: what woman would give her real name, and make up such stories of humiliation? They live on this land with us, they are our neighbours, sisters and friends. Would they, make us these stories knowing all of us would read, knowing their children would read?
Sexually harassing women or even men, is the ultimate form of humiliation. These brave women have spoken out because they do want these acts repeated.But we all know this is not the first time this has happened. only difference is, like Mariyam Manike refused to cover up the killing of her son in custody, these women are refusing to be silent.
What will the police do now? Call them terrorists?
This is more than politics. Do not be blinded by your politics.
Shame on you Yasir. I hope the same would happen to your sisters and mother too and then only people like you would realize. shame on you, and you are one person who would call 'allah akbar' soonest too and not realize what a god given gift you have to know what restraint mean and what kind of a sin abuse means. Go to afghanistan man.
when police women touched Dhiyana, you saw the outrage from the pseudo-humanright lovers.
this is the real police morality and professionalism in Maldives. This is the plight of our own making. Police are maldivians too. children of our women, Maldivians. this is Maldivians beating Maldivians. contrast that to outrage salafist depict on palastene and israel conflict OR Gayoom supporters when they talk about Portugese invasion or Tamil invasion on 1988..
What I see is not this Country going back to the Maummon Era. Even Maumoon had a mandate for some time from the people. From what we see today we have a military and a police who are truly in power with no mandate from the people. Day by day they are being made more powerful by Waheed and his allies as they know that is only way for them to stay in power. We are going towards a military state with the likes of Umar Naseer, Naazim (defence Minister) and Riyaz (Police Commissioner). One of the these days Waheed and political allies are going to wake up to find out they have no place in the running of this country and it is actually military and police ruling this country. Recent examples, apart from the coup, of how the current government is handing power to military and police are 1)The Media Commission signs a contract with police for God knows what. 2) Youth Ministry signs a contract with Defence Ministry and Police to promote Futsal for youngsters. This country is going to the Dogs.
Sheikh Ilyas labels those who are in police and MNDF as heroes!! When police and MNDF were the same institution they ran an operation named 'dhammaan'..The aim of this operation was law enforcing on a wide range... Those were olden days and i never witnessed such a case during my assignment in 'dhammaan'... Soldiers and police are much more disciplined then.. Now a days there are numerous persons in both institutions who use alcohol and drugs in a greater extent! I am not saying its because of drugs or alcohols the police is motivated in conducting the dirty searches mentioned in this article...Police and MNDF really,truly and honestly operates as a political party, the party is unknown to elections commission!! This party operates as a single body against MDP and its supporters. Home Minister Dr.Jameel is well aware of whats going on inside the police instituition yet he is lame to take action against such inhumanity....
I worked at Airport Customs back in late 90's. Back then body searches were conducted on immigrants suspected of importing drugs. 8 out of 10 times body searches were conducted, the searches returned positive, the suspects usually concealed drugs on parts of their body.
Its not like we were proud of what we did back then, but it usually went to the point of the body search based on the suspects behavior, (lying under interrogation, suspicious behavior, appearing intoxicated). Its not nice, its not pretty but somebody had to do it. Drug importers usually resorted to these means and quite often kicked up a riot when they were searched, but after the search returned positive, their demeanour calms down.
I believe that police were in their line of authority. If they suspected that the women being questioned were hiding weapons or drugs, then they were in their line of authority to conduct the body search.
Dont engage in criminal acts and then expect the police to place you on top of their head. If your behavior, your language, your actions are hostile then police were justified in their actions.
Ex-worker
Well,well I am not saying the police shouldnt carry out their duties....The protesters were calling for Dr.Waheed's resignation and are you saying that hostile?? If thats hostile why didnt the police strip search Diyana Saeed when she was protesting and being hostile on the streets! There is no getting away from the fact that police and mndf at present is working hand in hand as a political party whose identity is unknown to the elections comission!
Ex-worker u missed a point here... its only women they searched not men... can u explain how that happened or are u saying while u work in airport customs, only searches were done only on women..... thats the confusing part for me.."the point of strip-searching to that extent was to demean us, to lower our morale to make sure we don’t come out on the streets again.”... i strongly beleive that was there plan 🙁
I honestly feel bad, and really worry how my friends could say that this could have never happened if they stayed home.
I know as a fact that new Constitution allows us to express our thoughts. And we were doing that.
Nothing Illegal.
These animal like behaving police and MNDF can never be forgiven.
We certainly hoping for a help & once everything changes, we will call for "Justice"
these MDP thugs never ever will tell any truth and they have learnt it from Anni.
Even minivan is biased and sees only what Anni says and nothing more
Maldivians who do not support the recent Mutiny are so sad for the apparent brutality of the Maldivian Police & the National Defense Force Officers!!!!!!!!!
As Mr Nazim says there is nothing here to investigate!!!!!!!!! These are the thugs trained for fighting against the Maldivian Democracy by the power-hungry crooks who dictated the Maldives for more than 30 years...May Allah SWT guide Gayyoom to the right path, Ameen
Zaheena Rasheed. we want facts not Bull shit. I know her family very well. Big liar. Dont be fooled and do remember there is a judgment day. Truth will come out.
If this news is false or not we dont know. But it is easy to believe when police is very openly doing these things to people. MDP, DRP or PPM has the right to protest. I wish DIANA was abused like this when she was arrested @ YASIR: what would you feel if any of your relatives were harrased in the same way while they were protesting for their right?
Dear Minivan,
Can you cover the story about Indian defense ministry considering TVM channel as thread to thier national security? The fools at TVM are baffled but for onlookers the reason is obvious. Some in Police and Military together with corrupt businessmen had overthrown a democratically elected government. The coup has been rubber stamped and legitimized by India (To GMR, we will not forget this). If Indian generals (including the disgruntled top officer forced to retire) and police see this on TV, they can do the same for congress and their Italian (western colonial) boss.
Madness continues /
Nothing will change until people don't change mentality
and will be developed personal culture/
other way they will be just numbers of mentally sick clowns/
Strip and squat is a normal practice elsewhere in the world.
Reminds me of the Egyptian armies. Check out http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1369259/Egypt-protests-Women-forced-virginity-checks-arrests-Tahir-Square.html
These people should be strip naked and walk on the streets
i don't want my grand grand daughters to be beaten up by police. 30 years is back again. we must stand up for our freedom and for the peace.
whats wrong with these Maldivian dudes now, believe in anything that on media. you guys are crazy. facts facts come out with facts.
the terrorist government & its police is abusing the constitutional law and they are against Maldivian citizens.
written law is not the problem but the people rule it made different like last long 30 years we were banned from freedom of expression but last short 3 years we were experiencing our hearts and minds were relaxing on freedom.
why president Gayoom was not given the health insurance to every citizen? is it because of the law?
which clause of the law say president Mohamed Nasheed to give it to the people?
President Nasheed is a honest true people president and I vote him.
Vote Anni...............
I can see that several people commenting here find these horrendous realities happening in our country quite unpalatable. So they flatly deny everything and berate Minivan News, the messenger!! The actively ignorant can continue to cover themselves with a blanket of denial - but that does not make this article any less truthful.
Others like the ex-worker from customs are justifying these violations, without having a clue what he/she is talking about! These are all indicators of the quality of education, sensitisation to human rights, knowledge of our constitution and the level of professional training people receive in this country. And of course, Customs has been well known for being one of the most corrupt institutions of the state and for someone working there justifying abuse of human rights is quite unsurprising. This country has been flooded with drugs for years when Maldives Customs were overseeing our ports! Enough said about their capacities.
The Police have absolutely no right to abuse the protestors. There are no laws that would endorse these arbitrary actions, the sole purpose of which is to intimidate and demean detainees.
Even the arresting procedure by police is deeply flawed and the police have proved themselves to lack both knowledge of their regulations, procedures and the mandate that allows them to wear their uniform in the first instance. They have proved themselves to be a very weak and unprofessional institution, unworthy of the citizens of this country.
These are the reasons why it is so important to return this country to democratic rule, where at least people can begin to clean up the very flawed system and institutions we have.
What we are seeing today is the loss of democracy and the consequent loss of a fundamental democratic value - respect for human rights.