Shariah not a solution

By Yameen Rasheed | April 30th, 2011 | via Minivan News Yesterday, the Adhaalath party organised a large rally at the tsunami monument in Male’, to demand the implementation of Islamic Shariah in the Maldives. The party was joined by “hundreds” of pseudo-religious NGOs whi lent their collective voice to the clamour for Shariah, supposedly an antidote to ‘murder, violent assaults, robbery, rape and drug abuse’ in the country. “The whole nation is threatened and institutions have failed,” the party said in a statement. The ‘only solution’, according to large banners put up across Male’, is Islamic Shariah. What the Adhaalath...

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Posted in: Society

Over 50 sex crimes reported in April

Via Minivan News Police revealed today that 58 cases of sexual violence have been reported so far this month, including 40 cases in the atolls and 18 in Male’. MNBC One reports that while police declined to reveal either the identities or number of the suspects taken into custody, the cases reportedly involve child sexual abuse, sexual violence against the elderly and sexual assault inside vehicles. On Saturday, the Health Ministry in collaboration with local NGOs held a protest march in Male’ urging the authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice and pursue a zero tolerance policy for child abu...

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Posted in: News

STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING AND READ THE HELL OUTTA THIS

In the rising Islamic extremist country of the Maldives, Hilath Rasheed is a journalist, who actively voices out for the rights of LGBTIQxyz persons on his personal blog Hilath.com.  Hilath has just recently lost his job due to his personal political and religious views and the variety of content he covers on his blog. Mainstream media has decided to shun him.  Hilath has  since decided to shut down his blog as he feels he has been forced to fight for his basic survival now.  So, if anybody can please help Hilath, a dear and loyal friend out in anyway at all, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us or Hilath directly....

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Posted in: Politics / Religion,Society,True Stories

Adhaalath Party plans “Shariah is the Solution” protest march

By Ahmed Nazeer | April 27th, 2011 | Via Minivan News  The religiously conservative Adhaalath Party has announced a nation-wide protest march for next Friday calling for the implementation of Islamic Shariah in the Maldives. ”Murder, violent assaults, robbery, rape, drug abuse and other such crimes have reached an extreme level in this country,” the Adhaalath Party said in a statement. ”The whole nation is threatened and institutions have failed.” The gathering is to be held under the slogan ”Islamic Shariah is the Solution” and NGOs and political parties have been invited to participate. ”The gathering will commence...

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Posted in: Politics / Religion,Society

Man sentenced to six months imprisonment for skinny dipping in Artificial Beach

By Ahmed Nazeer | April 25th, 2011 | via Minivan News The Criminal Court has sentenced a man to six months imprisonment after he was found guilty of ‘skinny dipping’ (swimming naked) in the Artificial Beach in Male’. The Court said that Ali Niushad, of Henveiru Saarokuge’, had confessed to the crime and found him guilty of “objecting to order”. In the Court, Niushad confessed that on February 26 he removed all of his clothes and went skinny dipping at 5:30am that morning. The Criminal Court said his action violated article 88[a] of the Penal Code. In February this year, the religious Adhaalath Party complained that...

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Posted in: Society

Why so… ABUI?

Via Hilath.com In Dhivehi language, abui can mean a lot of things in a variety of situations — as Maldivian blogger Xef himself found out, unfortunately and unwittingly, from Sun FM’s “narrow-minded” CEO. But the kind of abui-ness that I will be talking about here is the openly and publicly distancing of oneself from “banal” activities such as sex but engaging in it secretly because such a natural – and strong – instinct as the sexual drive can never be repressed however much effort we put into it. So, I then started wondering, why are Maldivians so abui on the outside when deep inside they are extremely promiscuous? Why this social hypocrisy?...

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Posted in: Society

Protest march held in Male’ over sex crime fears

Via Minivan News A protest march jointly organised by the Health Ministry and local NGOs took place down the main street of Male’ yesterday amidst heightened concerns regarding the prevalence of sexual violence against women, minors and persons with special needs. Police revealed last week that 27 sexual violence cases were reported in the past three weeks, including 16 cases of child sexual abuse. Sun Online reports that participants held up placards calling on the authorities to bring sex crimes perpetrators to justice as they marched down Majeedee Magu towards the capital’s artificial beach area. The placards carried slogans such as...

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School children lured to guest houses and sexually abused, warn police

By Ahmed Nazeer | April 24th, 2011 | Via Minivan News School children are being lured to guest houses by adults and sexually abused, police have claimed. Head of the police Family and Child Protection Unit (FCPU), Chief Inspector Ahmed Shujau, told the press that school children between the ages of 14 to 18 were being sexually abused after being lured to guest houses during school hours. Shujau said that police had learned that the minors were usually befriended or seduced through the internet. While school children were found to visit guest houses with children of the same age, he continued, there had been incidents where...

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Posted in: Society

From Children's Stories to Realising The Power of Fuck You

Via Hilath.com I know many of my closeted Maldivian gay friends who told me that, their whole lives they had to struggle with their inner selves because Islam taught them being gay is wrong and an “abomination” of nature. So they are forced to re-organise their whole lives in ways that deceive the heterosexual community into believing that they are not really gay. Social isolation is intolerable — fearing the social alienation and social ostracism if any one discovered their “dirty” little secret. Every minute of their waking life, they focus all their mental energy trying to “act” that they are “not gay” but “very very straight” and...

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Posted in: Politics / Religion,Society

Mohamed Ubaid Writes Dhivehi Gay Erotica

Via Hilath.com “Inspired” by our own “somewhat erotic” Dhivehi stories (on DCJ blog), our gay Maldivian blogging friend and Maldives’ first international male nude model, Mohamed Ubaid, has started writing his own sexual experiences in Maldives under a Dhivehi Gay Erotica section!  In our humble opinion, this should yield interesting social results! ke...

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Posted in: Gossip

Spotted: Two Men Wearing the Burka Out and About in Malé

By Hilath via Hilath.com According to this Dhivehi news item on Haveeru Online dated yesterday, two young Maldivian men were seen on Male’s main street Majeedhee Magu that night wearing the buruga or headscarf, usually worn by self-proclaimed “pious” girls and women. One of the men even had a mustache and beard and was wearing a checkered shirt and jeans according to eyewitnesses. “The two men entered a shop near Million Bookshop and then came out and went away on a motorcycle. It was clear when they talked that they were men,” Haveeru quoted a bystander as saying. “The guy with the beard even had a cigarette. The other guy was also wearing...

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Posted in: Society

HRCM, Gender Department condemn sexual violence “atrocities”

By Ahmed Naish | April 21st, 2011 | via Minivan News The Human Rights Commission of Maldives (HRCM) and the Department of Gender and Family Protection Services have strongly condemned the recent “atrocities” of sexual violence against minors, women and persons with special needs. In a press release today, HRCM notes that the prevalence of sexual violence against the most vulnerable members of society, such as the elderly, under-age children and the disabled has “reached worrying levels.” “We call on the government, state institutions, political parties, civil society organisations and all citizens to work together with ...

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Posted in: Society

JSC denies arbitrary dismissal of magistrate, blames affair

By Azra Naseem | April 14th, 2011 | via Minivan News The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has told the Civil Court it removed the former Chief Magistrate of Thinadhoo in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Ahmed Shareef, from the bench because of a previous conviction for having an affair. In court for the third time this year facing allegations of unconstitutional behaviour, the JSC defended its decision to remove Shareef from the bench in August 2010 by providing the court with a detailed account of Shareef’s previous conviction dating back over a decade. According to the records, Shareef was sentenced to two months under house arrest...

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Posted in: Politics / Religion,Society

Maldives Celebrates Pink Shirt Day 2011

In an attempt to raise awareness against bullying, Rainbow Maldives organised an online campaign through facebook to encourage Maldivians to wear a pink shirt on 14 April 2011. A total of 6931 invitations were sent with 1036 people confirmed as attending, while only a mere 456 people confirmed as not attending. Overall, this was a major success for us as we spotted multiple pink shirts out and about in town today, despite the rain. Visit the facebook event here....

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Posted in: Society

2010 Human Rights Report: Maldives

Via U.S. Department of State The Republic of Maldives is a multiparty constitutional democracy with a population of approximately 395,000. In 2008 parliament ratified a new constitution that provided for the first multiparty presidential elections. In October 2008 Mohamed Nasheed became the country's first directly elected president in relatively free and fair elections. The constitution establishes a bill of rights and mandates a strict separation of powers among all the branches of government. Since the first multiparty parliamentary elections in May 2009, the parties in parliament have had difficulty working together, although the...

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Posted in: Report