Coups, cocks and condoms
by Azra Naseem
Ever since we humans signed the social contract, there have been great many reasons and excuses for restricting freedom of assembly. I’d wager, though, that throwing a ‘cursed cock’ at army personnel, or being in possession of unused condoms have never before been among them.
Yesterday the Maldives Police Service raided the protest camp the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has erected near the north-eastern shores of Male’ the capital with a search warrant issued on the basis that it was being used for black magic and sorcery, along with other ‘criminal activity.’ Having searched the premises, they triumphantly announced to the press their discovery of ‘evidence’– an unused pack of condoms.
According to diligent reporters at Minivan News, a local online newspaper, it was a packet of Moods Ultrathin. Perhaps their criminality lies in what they promise. As Moods’ Indian manufacturers would have it, they give you the ‘delight of uninhibited pleasure’. And in modern Male’, being dragged kicking and screaming back to the 14th Century by Islamists, pleasure is fast becoming a crime punishable by Sharia.
