Adhaalath Party Protests Decision to Mix Males and Females in Schools

By Ahmed Nazeer | September 29th, 2010 | via Minivan news The Adhaalath Party is to take urgent action against the government’s decision to provide secondary and primary education at the main schools in Male’. Mixing genders and various age-groups will lead to social and disciplinary problems, Adhaalath foresees. At an urgent meeting held last night, Adhaalath declared the Education Ministry’s decision to provide both primary and secondary education at all main schools in Male’ as “wrongful”. According to Adhaalath, it is one of many such “wrongful decisions” that include “making Islam and Dhivehi optional subjects”, and “differential...

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Posted in: Society

I Was Terrified For My Life

By Anonymous This happened to me about two days back. I was meeting up with a friend after a very long time. He lived alone and not so far from my house. Due to my busy working hours and shift duties, I was unable to meet my closest friends who were just like me, who understood the other side of my life. We had a lot of catching up to do and things to share and talk, so i stayed till late at his home with one of our friends (a girl, who understood what we were going through). We all had a good meal and had a good conversation which led to us losing track of time. It was just past 1 A.M. when I did eventually realise that it was in fact getting quite late and I had to go to work in the morning. Normally, if I go out on month Ramadan to my friend's place, I'd stay until 2 or 2:30 A.M. but...

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Posted in: True Stories

Comment on the Dhivehi Gay Pride March

As we may all must have heard by now, a Dhivehi Gay Pride March Event has been organised by a Mr. Nate McLove (who now no longer exists as it turns out) on Facebook on the 12 September 2010. The event is to be held on Majeedhi Magu from 8 pm to 12 am on the 10th of October 2010. As of now 71 people are attending this event with a huge contrast of 434 people not attending. Since Rainbow Maldives is not organising this march and have had no communication with Nate McLove regarding this march, we can neither confirm nor deny the truth behind its validity. There is a lot of specualtion that this march is simply a publicity stunt to spark much needed discussions about homosexuality in the Maldives. If so, the purpose has been served to some extent in the online community. Those who...

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Posted in: Society

The Evils of Democracy

by Ibrahim Nazim | via Islamic Foundation of the MaldivesDemocracy is a system of infidelity which opposes the decree of the Creator and an evil that was born and raised in the lands of the West. Islam and democracy can not coexist in the religion of Allah, the Lord of all the worlds.There is no such thing called ‘Islamic Democracy’ as some people put it because those people who adopt, implement or approve and agree to espouse democracy with its basic principles and fundamentals are openly hostile to the faith of monotheism.When democracy is implanted in a Muslim society, it becomes a trial which sets apart the faithful Muslims from hypocrites...

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Posted in: Politics / Religion

SOGI takes center stage at Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions - Part 1

IGLHRC’s Grace Poore with Siddharth Narrain (Alternative Law Forum) and Joy Liddicoat (New Zealand Human Rights Commission) by Grace Poore, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights CommissionLesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT) people in Asia and the Pacific Islands experience extra-judicial killings, torture, violence and rape, as well as discrimination in employment, education, housing and health services. via Fridae Note: [SOGI is an abbreviation for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity] Lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT) people in Asia and the Pacific Islands experience extra-judicial killings,...

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Posted in: Report

U.N. Chief Calls for Gay Rights

By Michelle Garcia via Advocate.com United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has called on countries to stop enforcing laws that discriminate against gays and lesbians.Ban's statement came as part of a larger message on human rights at a U.N. meeting in Geneva, according to the Associated Press. Several countries — many of them in Asia and Africa — still enforce laws that make homosexual activity punishable by jail or dea...

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Posted in: News

An open letter to GLBT Pride organizers in the Maldives

(In response to a message: “In order to avoid a civil unrest among the citizens of the Maldives, please report the event ‘Dhivehi Gay Pride March’ for the purpose of bringing it to the Facebook Management’s attention and urge the organizers of the event to call it off as it is in violation of the Islamic Shari’ah and Law.”) This is the essential problem with “Islamic Shariah and Law.”  So much of our religion says that no person may judge another in matters of religion; that only God can judge, so when people set themselves up as religious lawmakers and judges they effectively make themselves partners of God.  Of course...

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Posted in: Letters

Asylum Law Basics – Brief History of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and HIV (LGBT/H Asylum) Law

via immigration equality U.S. asylum law is derived from international agreements written after World War II which provide protection to people fearing or fleeing from persecution. The first agreement, the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, was drafted by the United Nations in response to the large migrations of people in the aftermath of the Second World War. The United Nations attempted to set forth an internationally agreed upon standard for who will be considered a refugee. The 1951 Convention, however, only applied to people who were refugees on the basis of events occurring before January 1, 1951. The United Nations incorporated the definition of refugee set forth in the 1951 Convention but expanded it to include future refugees in the 1967 U.N. Protocol Relating to...

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Posted in: Politics / Religion

Homophobia And Homosexuality

Via Shaf Homophobia, an extreme and irrational aversion to homosexuality and homosexuals. I’ve always wondered why guys (referring to men in Maldives since I don’t know about men and their mentality in other countries!) are homophobic. Seriously, guys are more homophobic than women! Don’t agree? Let me tell you. First of all, guys love going on trips with their guy pals and in “most” of the cases they end up doing something nasty like stripping a guy pal nude or“soatu beylevun” which they find amusing. Oh yeah, how would it be a problem if you show such extreme behaviour on picnics as long as you arn’t that in real eh? Poof! Nonesense. I tell...

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Posted in: Gossip

Dhivehi Gay Pride March?!

by Hilath | September 12th, 2010 | via Hilath.com This should upset many a Sheikh’s knickers...

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Posted in: Gossip

One Fine Day in This 100 % Pretending Country

by dhona | Friday, September 10, 2010 | via Dhona Today, while I and my husband were coming from my husband’s parents, he asks me why is it so important to have gay rights in this country while anyone can just be gay without declaring themselves as gay. I answered saying maybe because they want to be able to dress as women on the road. He gave me a good reply “look at ‘honey’... a gay man walking around in dress like a woman with no shame, he has guts.. Doesn’t he?” He was right there he was honey for years and years this man walked on streets like a woman wearing a bra underneath when she didn’t have breasts, everyone knew he was guy but...

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Posted in: Gossip

Maldives: A Happy & Gay Experience?

Via Maldives Traveller Holiday destinations offering services designed to more directly meet the needs and sensitivities of gay and lesbian travellers are becoming increasingly lucrative, and as a result, more important to tour operators all over the world. Yet, while the Maldives' resorts have long attracted guests of varying sexuality, faiths, race and even accents from all over the world, experts suggest that it is currently unlikely the country will look to directly market itself to homosexual visitors or other orientations of guests. Outside the desert island resorts that are perhaps most synonymous with the Maldives to the majority...

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Posted in: Politics / Religion

Minivan News Controversies

via Maldives Today Minivan News is often he focus of many allegations concerning journalism ethics and standards.  Haveeru News on November 2009 reported that the Islamic Foundation has called on the Government to deport the editor of Minivan News website, Maryam Omidi, for publishing a reader-submitted letter on the website which talked about legalizing homosexuality in Maldives. Ahmed Shain, Spokes Person for Islamic Foundation said that their investigation had revealed that Maryam Omidi former editor of Minivan News, a resident of UK and the editor of the Minivan News website, had worked as a journalist for one of the largest European...

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Posted in: News

Islamic Sharia: the Solution to Social Evils

Written By: Ibrahim Nazim | 31 August 2010 | Via Islamic Foundation of  the MaldivesMany westerners and human rights campaigners have the false notion that Maldives is a country ruled according to sharia (Islamic law). However, the truth is that apart from some aspects of marriage, divorce and legal issues involving inheritance, the courts in the Maldives do not decide matters according to Islamic sharia and this dreaded word sharia has nothing to do with most practices of the Maldivian people. There never was a time that sharia with all its principles was applied in the lives of Maldivians.    Just seeing burqa clad women...

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Posted in: Politics / Religion,Society