An Indian gynecologist working at Hoarafushi Health Centre in Haa Alifu Atoll has said she will “never come back to the Maldives” after two masked islanders attacked and gagged her.
“They broke in to my room with their faces covered, holding knives, and they tried to attack me,” the doctor told Minivan News. “I could only see their eyes. It was like the worst nightmare I have ever seen.”
The doctor said at first she tried to escape by shouting, but then the men tried to cover her mouth and tie a rope to her neck.
“I dialed the last dialed number on my phone and it was the health centre. When the health centre answered the phone the attackers snatched it from my hands and switched it off, but luckily the person who answered heard me screaming.”
The doctor said she fought with the men and was able to escape.
“I held their knife and pushed them back, then jumped out of the window and screamed for help,” the doctor said. “Then they ran away.”
The doctor said it was the “worst experience I have ever had” and that she would “never ever come back to the Maldives.”
“I’ll even advise my friends and my students not to choose Maldives,” she said. “I mean why should they do this? I did my best to serve the people here, why should they do this to me?”
The doctor said she had no idea what had motivated the pair to attack her, and said she was emotionally, mentally and physically hurt in the incident.
Deputy chair of the island council Ali Riyaz, who told Minivan News he was the first to attend the scene, said the incident was “regrettable”.
Riyaz said he first heard of the incident when the doctor phoned a councilor during a council meeting last night at 9:50pm.
“I went to her room immediately and called the police,” Riyaz said. “Her room is very close to the Council Office and we rushed there very quickly. When we knocked on the door she did not open it because she was so frightened.”
Once the councilors had convinced the doctor who they were, “she came outside and started crying. She was injured,” Riyaz said. “She said two men with their faces covered entered her room and attacked her.”
Riyaz said the doctor had told them not to do this to her and that she was like a sister to them.
“She even told them to take any amount of money they wanted, and also to take any electronics including her laptop if they wanted, without attacking her.”
Police had arrested 11 people following the incident, Riyaz said.
“Two of them were the two men suspected by the police, and the other nine were those who went [to police] of their own accord because they have past crime records and they wanted to show that they had no hand in this incident,” Riyaz said.
The doctor was the only specialist working in the Hoarafushi Health Centre and the only gynecologist in the entire atoll. Riyaz said her departure would be “a great loss” for the atoll.
“She had decided to leave Maldives some time ago,” he said. “She was a great doctor and is loved by many islanders across the atoll.”
Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam confirmed that police had arrested two promising suspects, although he said their motives remained unclear.
The community had been very supportive of the police investigation and were taking care of the doctor, he said: “The heart of the whole island is with her.”
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After reading this piece of news I am deeply dismayed. What is wrong with our society? It seems that we have no respect of elders, leaders and professionals like physicians so on. I believe it is time know the government have mass counseling the barbaric citizens. Maldives seems not have moral values at all!
No politician cares! they only care about the committee allowance of 20,000 and income tax bill. What a shame on our society ! I'm deeply appalled.
Disgusting! This is going too far. No one can feel safe anywhere now......could it be a result of spreading extremism? With all the women superficially covered, the men are going crazy when they see even a little bit of skin!
I request the police to release these 11 people. They need a second chance to rehab themselves.
The doctor's disgust is completely justified.
This is a terrible thing to happen to anyone. Just reading about these things is sickening.
This is a poverty stricken society...desperate to go to any lengths for survival&for the drugs that these criminals need..this is a poor country with an alarming criminal rate where the government gives too hoots for the safety & security of the rest of the population..Criminals like these,killers,thieves and drug addicts rule this country...The doctor should strongly advice everyone in her country never to visit this country,in fact the Indian government should altogether stop all the aids to this country...stop sending doctors,teachers,nurses...stop giving scholarships to train these animals..They don't deserve their kindness..these people know only just to take,take and take more from the rest of the world,they don't what gratitude and humility means...Some wild animals belonging to an insane country led by an insane man!
This is a sad day for Maldives. As a Maldivian I feel ashamed of myself. Who ever did this barberic act should be punished severly. Unfortunatly this goverment and the previous goverment is too soft on criminals. This goverment and the previous goverment is the goverment is the goverment for criminals. They no longer care about law abiding good citizen of this countrey. These people will be arrested but after few days of holiday in ' Maafusih luxury jail' They will be released. Because the goverment regard them as 'kids with special attention'. This is a film and bloody joke playing over again and again by goverment and criminal. How disgusting !
What's the use of Maldivian police service!!? It's one thing to play police academy series with Maryam waheeda on MNBC!! This should have been prevented!! .. As they should be more aware of the situations in islands specially on foreign nationals who comes here to serve us!!
disgusting! i empathize with the doctor!
If law and order cannot be maintained, this will continue.
The world progresses around while the Maldives regresses. Given that the Maldives has a history that dates back over centuries, the country should be, by now, one of the most civilized. Sadly no. All the wrong things got cultivated into the tiny society. Materialism, extremism, barbarism, vindictiveness, racism. People got swayed by all the wrong ideas, priorities got mixed up, corruption became rampant, drugs became a vice and an easy life has left them spoilt. Just the tv ads on mnbc will give you an insight into this weird society...most ads will show a high-strung quarrel. One ad shows the master asking for a tin of 'felivaru mas', flinging the tin away, shouting at the hapless servant. The felivaru mas lost its flavour for me. I am sure it could have been portrayed in a better light. Then the girl who refuses to climb onto the motorcycle because it didn't match the colour of her dress! Spoiled brat! Then the little kids, thrilled with the enchanting array of kids toys and decor which becomes a 'must-have' for all housewives and mothers. Instead of trying to cultivate in our youngsters, a set of values they all run to grab a set of headphones or speakers or some gadget. Then here comes the topper of them all: the hitachi push-button! Sure, a washing machine is an absolute necessity in the tiny spaces of our tiny homes, but when people cannot heat anything without a micro-wave, or toast a piece of bread without a toaster, or cook some rice without a rice-cooker or fry an egg without a Philips frier, something's going very wrong. Everyone's head is in a cloud including the junkies who roam the streets and grab at everything and anything to satisfy whatever's festering on their sick minds. There are a number of reasons why the poor doctor was assaulted. No, it is not the hitachi push-button! But the rise of a barbaric society, through failure to nurture good breeding from day one. No wonder Maldivian society is retrograding at a shocking space. My heart goes out to the good doctor.
I agree with susan's comment
@ Maldives I cry for you. Dear Sad Little Indian. Indians will always come to Maldives cos we pay more. Your doctors are willing to come here and work as waiters cos we pay more.
There is definitely something going wrong in Maldivian's mind. I have been in this country, not for the salary but for the serenity of nature, since last 3 years. Have worked here and earned a moderate amount of respect as well or at least I believe so for my better composure. Still, today I think that I should better leave because these people have lost their respect in my eyes. The way they behave with the elite educated ones is pathetic themselves not being that well educated or even well informed about things.
I don't know this country is actually sinking in ocean or not in 30 odd years, but it will be interesting to see what will happen to an average Maldivian, when they will try to fit themselves in any other society of normal humans on the name of migration or refuse.
Within the 3 years, which I have spent here as a doctor, they have become more arrogant, unwilling to understand reasons, awkwardly demanding and oh my God...every 2nd fellow is under influence of some wrong kind of drug or it's related products.
Their mind doesn't go beyond this new business of party politics and religion. In last 1 year alone at least 10 times I was requested to change my religion in a very passionate and demanding tones. It is actually not decent. But to ask for decency from this community doesn't look to be a very nice idea. Of course I am not talking about all the Maldivians. But a few spoiled potatoes spoil the entire sac of potatoes very soon.
In front of me I see that they vandalize the residences of expatriates and that too at the exact time when that fellow has withdrawn some money for his/her expenses or returned back from his/her native place after buying a new nice mobile phone. There must be some local informer or how else they can do it? They don't want to teach us their language so that we could never understand what they are talking in front of us. They make rude comments on us on our face (this much Dhivehi I understand now to know this).
All these things are not nice. And now trying to molest our women folk. Actually we should leave these people with their own fate to perish eventually or live within themselves.
HI,
I strongly recommend that Indian govnment should take steps against this immorality.
There are good many people in maldives.where i worked in maldives.But now things are different and people are changed.As a islam i hope rules as per kuran will be the best for maldives.Hope all understand
Let allah decides on maldives.But i still love maldives and love maldivians.
ok folks. lemme pin it on the head! the problem is hindhi movies... ya, these hindhi movies have the usual bad guy who will kick the doc if his pal did not survive knife attack etc.. the folks who watch these movies believe in this kind of mentality.. that doctors are there somehow below respect..
so as long as we watch hindhi movies, this problem of disrespect will be there.
It is really sad to know that we Maldivians have stooped so low. And to think that there are some who still can't acknowledge the wrong that has been done to the Dr and to so many of our expats who are working to provide us a service that we are incapable of providing for ourselves! Reeko Moosa's comment is unbelievable! There are lots of places that well qualified Indian Docs can go to work in, that will infact pay them better too rather than the Maldives. It is not all about money when expats choose a place to work in, there are lots of factors like proximity to their home country, living standards and society and community values. Obviously this country, with the attitude we Maldivians have towards our expat population is fast becoming one of the most unattractive places to come to work in! Sadly Dr Pankaj is right, we Maldivians need to realise a thing or two about life and that its not all about us! We need to respect other nationalities, religions and beliefs. We are the most intolerant country in the whole world and yet we are quick to expect so much from other countries we go to like India and Sri Lanka. We are a mere population of 300,000 plus with the tourism industry as our only mode of survival in this country and yet we behave and act like we have millions in population and all the natural resources in the world lie at our feet! How very IGNORANT and STUPID! If we as individuals and as a community cannot change our thinking and behavior for the better, nobody else can help us.
I can understand the doctor's reaction, because of the nature of what she experienced in our country. but the rest of you commenting, i can't understand. there are lots of things wrong with maldives, true, but really we aren't that special. rape, murder, corrupt politicians, drugs, and so on, is a problem for other societies too. people can do evil, no matter what religion or nation they come from.
@ Dr. Pankaj, Sir, you have to understand that Maldivians have been a suppressed population for thousands of years. Few years back we have got the freedom of speech and it seems that we are misusing our freedom of speech and misbehaving.
The youths of today, especially in Island community lack of discipline since their parents are also crude in all respect and don’t understand right and wrong.
Dr. Pankaj, Maldivian are not of extremist few as regards to religion. We are moderate, but know what is happening in this country is that Mullahs of Saudi Arabian, Pakistani and Indian belief are raving mad about Islam and preaching hate and of cause uneducated Islanders believe in what these bloody Mullahs teach and reach out to people and ask them to change their faith without understanding it is really crude of them to talk rubbish with foreigners.
Moreover these barbaric Islanders do not understand that Maldives is poor nation with very limited natural resources and an uneducated workface.
HAHa, hehe.
Great! All my boys of the 30years of well education and 30yrs well manners and 30 yrs of Islamic preachings by me is FINALLY SHOWING SOME RESULTS.
haha HEHE hohoho.
I hope the foolish Maldivians will again elect me or my Gang-star bro Yameenu. haha
all countries have problems with criminals, take the example of recent riots in uk, however one of the most disturbing aspects of recent decline in maldives social values and increased in violent criminal activities is lack of enforcement of punishment. what is the message given to these criminalas when the president continues to release them. my sympathies with the good doctor
Some of these comments from readers fit and reflect the described mind set in the article.
The worst part of all such things is the naivete of the av Maldivian populace. They would believe and trust any garbage the political spinners ramble and don't actually act upon changing there life styles. They would rather buy small box sized plots in male' for illegal favors for electing those bastards.
The only people to me who closely resemble the anti-social behavior of the 'student' and av island populace is the indigenous people in Aussie. Boy do they pose problems, but the thing is they are drunk!!! So what the heck is up with Maldivians?? too much booze? >_<
A serious crime against a woman, disgraceful act by couple of my compatriots.It is symptomatic of the ethical decay in our society. Hopefully the culprits will be brought to justice.
@Dr.Pankaj, it must be tough to be treated less than a god (in Indian hospitals?) but let us not trivialize what Dr.Deeplai has faced by comparing it to some idiots making fun of you for not knowing the local language. I guess hoping the Maldivian medical community (local & expatriate to come together) to condemn this act of violence against a fellow medico is expecting too much.
Actually this is a problem with the islands.You rarely seee this kind of sexual harassemnt in Male.I have a maldivian doctor who was posted to an island hospital and before she was sent the health ministry officials warned her about incidents like this.imagine if a maldivian does not feel secure in her country who else can feel secure.apparently she worked on the island for a few months and couldnt take it due to incidents like this.
it seem the islanders think that they can get awaay with anything on their island and they dont reaalsise that doctors are in short supply and that they have to do all they can to make sure the doctor stays.i hope swift punishment is given to these people so that they can be made an example for others.
Who the hell wrote this article? men ON Hoarafushi? On Hoarafushi?? Get your prepositions right before calling yourself a journalist!
why our youngsters are behaving like this..????simple answer is the law is so weak and the police is useless....not only to foreigners for all of us they are big threaten.....
"Disgusting! This is going too far. No one can feel safe anywhere now……could it be a result of spreading extremism? With all the women superficially covered, the men are going crazy when they see even a little bit of skin!"
its sad but true. the things you CAN NOT do and that are forbidden - THOSE ARE THE THINGS YOU WANT TO THE MOST.. a friend got attacked when i was with her in male', the guy didnt even grab her bag, he just touched her breast and touched himself down there. then he started beating her and left. what is this..? crazy. and no it was wrong to let go of so many prisoners i think - i know a few that are pure evil and has done bad things towards kids - and they r now on the streets of male' bc of the ramazan- releasing of prisoners... its just very corrupt how the government investigate the wrong people and close their eyes when it comes to the really bad people. and i agree - this kind of violence and drugs do exist everywhere in the world!
my thoughts go to the indian doctor, the expats of this country that are being greeted with nationalism from some of the maldivians, and the rapes of young women that are "justified" with poor evidence- a woman in her midlife does not want to be raped by 5 men - so why would a 12 year old girl give her conscent? its all backwards. and its sad.
Dear Maldivian friends
It Is very surprising to see what your society is doing to people who are helping you ,Treating you,relieving your sufferings ,All of you run to India for your treatments in time of need,We treat you in your illness,Still it is very unfortunate of you to treat women like this as a matter of fact every women is to be respected.I hope you understand this. As for my dear friend who said that pay is the criteria for coming to Maldives. it reminds me of a story of a pigeon who closes his eyes when he sees a cat and thinks that the cat does not see him but in end gets eaten by the cat .continue this and very soon no doctors from India will come here as it is consultants are in acute shortage.It is your need for doctors because you don't have any of your own who are educated in Maldives as you don't have a single medical college so pls know on what and on whom you are commenting Dear Reeko Moosa.The world thinks Maldives is heaven I agree, but it is changing for worse everyday hope you can preserve it as heaven and not be known as a unsafe and undesirable place.I still believe that things can change for the best? Do you!!!!!!!!:(