President Dr Mohamed Waheed has issued a statement warning that calls for a boycott on tourism over the flogging sentence for a 15 year-old rape victim “will only serve as a setback to the economic opportunities and rights we are all striving to uphold for women, girls and the hardworking Maldivian people in general.”
The President’s statement comes as an Avaaz.org petition calling for a moratorium on flogging and better laws to protect women and girls in the Maldives reached more than two million signatures – more than twice the number of tourists who visit the country each year.
In a letter published on Minivan News on Saturday, Avaaz.org Executive Director Ricken Patel insisted that the organisation had not called for a outright tourism boycott.
“What we do stand ready to do, however, is to inform tourists about what action is and isn’t being taken by the Maldives government to resolve this issue and change the law, and to identify those MPs and resort owners who are using their influence to push for positive change – and those who are not,” Patel said.
“Around the world people are interested (and have a right to know) what kind of systems they’re supporting with their tourism dollars, and to make their holiday decisions accordingly,” he added.
President Waheed meanwhile thanked the international community “for their concern” in the case, noting that Attorney General Azima Shukoor had met the girl “and she is receiving the appropriate physical and psychological counseling.”
“This case should never have been presented in the courts and we are working to ensure that cases like this are never brought to the courts again,” President Waheed said.
“We appreciate the international compassion for this young woman and ask for your patience as this case moves through the judicial system. As both the President and as a father, I am fully committed to protecting and advancing the rights of women and girls in the Maldives and throughout the world and share your deep concern about this young victim,” he said.
“The Maldives is a young democracy working to balance our religious faith with our new democratic values. I ask that you support us and join us as partners as we work through this challenge.”
President Waheed’s Gaumee Ithihaad Party (GIP) has meanwhile declared itself in coalition with the religious conservative Adhaalath Party (AP), which has publicly endorsed the 15 year-old’s flogging sentence, stating that she “deserves the punishment” as outlined under Islamic Sharia.
The Adhaalath party, members of which largely dominate the Maldives’ Ministry of Islamic Affairs, stated that the sentence of flogging had not been passed against the minor for being sexually abused by her stepfather, but rather for the consensual sex which she had confessed to having to authorities.
“The purpose of penalties like these in Islamic Sharia is to maintain order in society and to save it from sinful acts. It is not at all an act of violence. We must turn a deaf ear to the international organisations which are calling to abolish these penalties, labeling them degrading and inhumane acts or torture,” read a recent statement from the party.
“If such sinful activities are to become this common, the society will break down and we may become deserving of divine wrath,” the Adhaalath Party stated.
A previous call for a moratorium on the flogging of women for the crime of extramarital sex was raised by UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay during an address to parliament in 2011.
Following her address, demonstrators gathered outside the UN building holding placards calling for Pillay to be “arrested”, “flogged” and “slain”.
Pillay’s statement was publicly condemned by the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM), Islamic Ministry, MPs and religious NGOs, while the Adhaalath Party called on then President Mohamed Nasheed to condemn Pillay’s statements “at least to show to the people that there is no irreligious agenda of President Nasheed and senior government officials behind this.”
“What’s there to discuss about flogging? There is nothing to debate about in a matter clearly stated in the religion of Islam. No one can argue with God,” said Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem at the time.
More recently, a report on extremism in the Maldives published in US West Point military academy’s Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) Sentinel has warned that growing religious extremism and political uncertainty in the country risk negatively affecting the country’s tourism industry.
“Despite its reputation as an idyllic paradise popular among Western tourists, political and religious developments in the Maldives should be monitored closely,” the report concluded.
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If Waheed is so worried about the barbaric Shariah penalties, then he can simply abolish them. There won't be any petition then. But he can't do that, since Maldivians love their Shariah more than they love kuffar tourism money.
Just ask Mullah Iyaz over at the Fiqh Academy, who has released a fatwa saying that anyone who opposes Shariah law would be an apostate. This mullah had also called for amputations, stoning, crucifixion and the death penalty to be included in the Penal Code. There will be a march for Shariah on the 19th of this month (the second this year) organised by the true followers of Muhammad. No doubt the bearded apes and dementors will be out in full force demanding that apostates be beheaded and homosexuals be crushed under a brick wall.
Waheeds hands are tied because he is in bed with the Islamists. A recent alliance no less! Waheed you speak with forked tongue dude!
Is it true? No! Really?
Have we really reached the stage when we have to make a decision?
Shariah or tourism? Translated it would be Stone Age or Prosperity.
I would ask Mullah Iyaz, to go to heaven with his family, and do not make judgements for others. He could take the concubines and young boys allocated for Adheeb as well. But, let Adheeb make the correct decision. For now, for Maldivians.
..the flogging sentence for a 15 year-old rape victim “will only serve as a setback to the economic opportunities and rights we are all striving to uphold for women, girls and the hardworking Maldivian people in general.”
I feel that this statement is absolute nonsense. When I first arrived in the Maldives in 1974 the literacy rate of women was higher than that of men and women dressed as Maldivians. It was also mainly women teaching children to read The Holy Koran.
Now after the advent of mass tourism women only constitute 2% of Maldivian Work force employed in the tourism sector..
Unelected Pres. Waheed has a masters degree in saying one thing to deflect he international community and then back stabbing his own people. He is now part of the Babarian,s of the Adhaalath party to purely try and get elected. He is a man who can not be trusted.
Normally, I would have expected a Stanford-educated former regional Chief of UNICEF to be more unequivocal in his advocacy of the rights of children. But then having to rely on the support of mullahs to effect a coup to overthrow the country's first ever democratically elected president somewhat alters the frame.
It is neither urf nor sharia law that is behind this particular case of flogging. Under Mr Gayoom, a moratorium on flogging was imposed, and he publicly stood by that decision even when the Islamists labelled him an apostate for doing so, during the elections in 2008. When Maldives ratified Convention against Torture in 2004, there were no demands to enter a reservation to "permit" flogging. There were no demands to do so even when Maldives acceded to ICCPR in 2006. I made a public pledge on 3 November 2010, at the Maldives UPR in Geneva, to restore the moratorium on flogging and to a public debate to ban it completely, but there was no political blowback. It was only when tax-evading businessmen, Mr Gayoom and Mr Waheed teamed up with the mullahs in October 2011 to stage a coup that suddenly peremptory norms of international law became un-Islamic. Mrs Pillai unwittingly walked into an ambush all these forces had set up, when she called for a public debate on flogging in November 2011. I was dismayed that even Mr Nasheed's own Cabinet failed to support him on this.
The flogging of this girl is clearly a political matter. She was offered to the Salafist judiciary in the manner that in the pre-Islamic days, every month a virgin girl was offered to a "sea-monster" for one night. At the end of that night, she would be found dead, but the monster would have retreated in to the sea, for a whole month.
Farah Didi and I and a few others, including Amnesty International, rang alarm bells on the impending injustice being meted out to this girl, before she was even indicted. But the authorities lied, and allowed it to proceed. The Prosecutor-General even sought to recall the case, but did so only half-heartedly and too late. Mr Waheed and Mrs Azima Shakur were comfortable to offer her as a sacrifice in return for the political support of the mullahs.
Now, Mr Waheed is acting, it appears, not out of an interest in observing Islamic law, which would not support punishing a victim, punishing someone society had manifestly failed to protect, or someone who was traumatised and abused. She was not even guaranteed her due process rights as the high priests of the judiciary extracted confession after confession from her, which she could recant at any point, but was obviously never advised to do so.
But Mr Waheed moves only when the tourist dollars are threatened. I do not support the tourism boycott, which would only aggravate human rights violations in the country. I in fact oppose it. But, in the context of the case at hand, I expected Mr Waheed at least to show some commitment, especially when children are concerned, to the principles of UNICEF, from where he told me he continues to draw a "good" pension. There are 14 centuries of sharia jurisprudence on flogging that Mr Waheed could have drawn upon to end flogging; or just dial Mr Gayoom for a fatwa. There are also clear international legal obligations on Maldives to end flogging-- my first act as Foreign Minister in 2005 was to peg Maldives to article 27 of Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. He has all these legal avenues to save this girl from flogging even if he did not want to rule on matters related to hadd on Mr Gayoom's fatwas.
But it is sad to see the current government still controlled by tourism dollars and demands of mullahs, both of whom demand the rights of the people be sacrificed at the alter of power.
On the wider of issue of flogging, if Mr Waheed dare not ban it or suspend it, as Mr Gayoom had done, he should at least recognize that the time has come for the use of civic reasoning on the forms of punishment to be used in Maldives, and invite a public debate on flogging. Failure to do so would bring more human rights concerns in the future, not only from current laws; it would also increase the appetite of the Salafi judiciary to amputate the limbs and mutilate the bodies of people they dislike. That would not be serving Islam in any way, but serving only Mr Waheed's power trip.
@homosexual
sharia is barbaric? It is the law that changed the world.It is the law that gave women the respect they deserve at a time when the world used them as chunks of flesh!,it is the law that gave rights to and made humans of slaves,it was the law that organized societies and helped bring in this era of organized rule of states.It was the law that ushered in morality at a time when the christian concept of love and mercy was misused by the rulers and commoners alike to usher in a period of what could be termed liberalism that destroyed the culture of europe and broought in the dark ages.Islam is not only a religion but a way of life with strict orders becox it is logic that humans and human emotions cannot be controled without some sort of fear.(ever tried bringing up a child? or dont u have any rules for your partner? better stil read history of previous civilizations).At a time when Europe was ruled by monarchs,islam brought in democracy and diplomacy where even the prophet's family coudn't rule after his death.It was sharia that made islam become the strongest kingdom at the time of Umar, because its the justice in the law that made it acceptable to the people of the conquered land who obeyed the caliphs, because they saw that sharia would give them equality and prevent the powerful from mistreating the weak.The europeans and the jews took years to accept that they cant beat sharia so they had no choice but to try and come up with something better along the same lines.Thus we have the same principles Mohammed brought but with the addition of 'more' mercy and choice to make it seem better than the sharia.But muslims believe that human inventions cannot be comparable to what is divine,cox sharia is in the Quran and muslims live and breath the miracles of the Furqan-The 'Wise Book' -which is the reason for the undying devotion of the followers of islam .So why should we belive what a mere mortal says when we ourselves can perceive the truth in the powerful words.
Islam and democracy, human rights will never go together. We have to choose either Islam or human rights. It is useless to discuss about this issue as we can see what is happening in all Islamic countries to day. Just have a look at Syria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mali, Sudan, Somalia.
In the near future, The mullahs will apply in marriage court to conduct the marriage with 13 years old girl then
The girl should continue school to become a professional or deliver babies one each year till she is 40 years!
Will this not be a rape of a youth who is fond of studying.......
There should be a disease that must hunt mullah only and ............?????
President Waheed doesn't seem to understand this is not just about one child.
It is about all the children and women who have been punished in the past and who will be punished in the future. End this barbarism now!
“The Maldives is a young democracy working to balance our religious faith with our new democratic values. I ask that you support us and join us as partners as we work through this challenge.”
The international community will not and should not listen to this because religion has no place in a democracy and they know it! Do you know why? Because not everyone follows the same religion!
And even those who do, don't follow it to the T! You may think they do because you threaten to kill anyone who leaves your religion. So they lie about. Simple as that really.
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“If such sinful activities are to become this common, the society will break down and we may become deserving of divine wrath,” the Adhaalath Party stated.
The amount of stupid in this statement has hurt my brain. Society will break down because of sex? People have sex all the time. Don't see societies breaking down or facing gods wrath.
Humans, like all animals, are hard wired to have sex and to want to have sex. It is literally one thing we have to do to make our lives feel complete. And you lot punish people for it. So you essentially punish people for being human. Even children. This is why the international community is disgusted at Maldives.
Also... "divine wrath", Hah! what a joke.
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"...the sentence of flogging had not been passed against the minor for being sexually abused by her stepfather, but rather for the consensual sex which she had confessed to having to authorities."
Right... because two people did something they both wanted to do in private without harming anyone, she deserves to be beaten and humiliated. I cannot see the logic, reason or justice in this. Anyone care to help me out here?
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“What’s there to discuss about flogging? There is nothing to debate about in a matter clearly stated in the religion of Islam."
This is exactly the kind of stupid rhetoric that doesn't belong in government. Of course it needs to be discussed. This is a non-crime. There is no victim. No damage is being done monetarily or to society. It is two independent people, doing something consensual in private. No one needs to butt into their business.
"No one can argue with God,” said Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem at the time.
Well I hate to break it to you but I don't believe in your god and so I will argue all I want. Who's going to stop me? Your god? Hah! Let's see him try, after all, he has been MIA for a while now huh?
Bring an end to shariah law in Maldives. It is outdated to the say the least. Barbaric is more accurate though.
What a liar. All the big money goes to the tycoons, while employees are paid a pittance - and sometimes, not at all.
Tourism money benefits men more than women. All major decisions are made by men and fewwomen in top positions other than AG are not vocal about women’s and children’s rights. What is Waheed talking about. He keeps appointing useless people to top positions in government while the Councils offices are being closed for lack of funds. Don’t talk using baseless facts.
“We appreciate the international compassion for this young woman and ask for your patience as this case moves through the judicial system. As both the President and as a father, I am fully committed to protecting and advancing the rights of women and girls in the Maldives and throughout the world and share your deep concern about this young victim,” he said. This is what he said and to date he has not appointed a Minister to the Ministry. How very KIND and CONCERNED he is. Bulls**t
Tourism boycott campaign is pushed by Nasheed thinking that if he can ruin this industry, then he will have a better chance to win the election.
This tactics is used by Feroh in the history. To make people to pray him, fist thing he did was to ruin the country and make the people to go and beg for the food . Unless Firoh gives food, no one else will have any food to fill thier stomach.
Nasheed thinks that if he can ruin the tourism industry, he can then whole country will suffer and no one will have any means to sustain thier life in Maldives except the elite like Nasheed who had robbed the country like Gayyoom.
When people suffer, they will obviously go and beg from the people like Nasheed.
But i doubt this tactics will work in the civilized society now.
Muslim brains, no doubt trapped in the Dark Ages, will try to justify the inhumame Shariah Law by comparing it to medieval Europe. One could justify the Code of Hammurabi too, using similar reasoning. Such Muslims are blind to modern human rights laws and the cruel injustice and inhumane punishments under Shariah today. More taqiyya to fool the kuffar, just like power-hungry Waheed is lying to the UN to pacify corrupt resortowners and bloodthirsty mullahs. Ofcourse, I welcome all these Shariah changes, because that would be the only way blind Maldivians will realise what it really is. From there, we can move towards abolishing it completely.
Why can't these kuffar rant against Budhists who are burning rohinga kids in their homes? Why don't they see something amiss when the Americans bomb Afghan villages and call it casualties or collateral damage. Why can't a kuffar be a kuffar but an open minded and just?
Have an idea.
These kuffar are just:
small minded uneducated bed bugs ranting against the rest of us. the 99%
http://www.haveeru.com.mv/dhivehi/report/136778
I've been going to the Maldives each year for the past several years for the wonderful marine life and scuba diving. Not any more. I've boycotted this year and won't go back. These laws appear to have been made by the insane - and male of course. What person gets flogged for being raped? Or even beyond that, what person gets flogged or stoned, or whatever else these nutcases do for commiting adultery. The acts of violence the lunatic authorities extend are far worse than any adultery. How dare people suggest that if the tourists back out of the Maldives, the plight of women will be even worse. It is your society, you idiots, that you made this way and you have all the power you need to change it - but you won't of course because that would mean giving women some dignity and indpendence and might threaten the poor men who flog, rape and torture. Poor boys. You have it so bad.