Category: People

The flogging of a 15-year-old rape victim: a legislative or institutional failure?

Maldives shocked the world in February this year when its Juvenile Court sentenced a 15-year-old girl, also a victim of rape, to flogging by a 100 lashes for the crime of fornication. This is an article contributed to Dhivehi Sitee by #OperationEndherima, a social media movement of Maldivians concerned by the sentence. It looks at existing legal mechanisms for protecting the rights of children and, in light of these, challenges the claim by the State that it is lack of law rather than institution failure that led to the flogging sentence.

The author wishes to remain anonymous, and wrote the original article in Dhivehi, a PDF version of which can be read here. I have translated it into English below for you.

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7 February 2012, according to Umar Naseer

by Azra Naseem

On 13 May 2012, PPM Interim Deputy Leader and 2013 presidential candidate, Umar Naseer, gave an interview to the Commission of National Inquiry (CoNI) on how the events of 7 February 2012 unfolded. This is a translation of the part of the interview focusing specifically on the protests of 6 February and the subsequent events that culminated in President Nasheed’s resignation.

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Nasheed in the Indian High Commission: the stakes and the players

by Azra Naseem

With former President Mohamed Nasheed taking refuge at the Indian high Commission in Male’, the international community’s strange apathy towards the ongoing fight for democracy in the Maldives has been stirred, if not entirely shaken. As Male’ waits to find out how India will respond to the Maldivian government’s request to hand Nasheed over to the police today, it is worth looking at the intricacies of small island politics where personalities loom large. What is at stake, and equally importantly, who are the players?

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