Alleged Goidhoo sex-offender is DRP head

by Donim on November 27, 2007

It has emerged that the Imam of Goidhoo, Ali Rasheed, who in July was accused of sexually abusing 5 girls aged 11-19 years, is the head of the island's Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party or DRP. The tiny island community in south Baa Atoll was outraged when police released Mr. Rasheed back into the island, after failing to find enough evidence to convict him.

Paradise for paedophiles

by Donim on July 31, 2007

It’s not good news for children and young people in the Maldives that Maumoon Abdul Gayoom intends to run for yet another term in office. Asia’s longest-serving dictator considers under-21-year-olds too young to vote but 12-year-olds old enough to have consensual sex with adults.

No place for women?

by Donim on June 2, 2007

The Maldives Democratic Party has publicly expressed support for the government’s nomination of three female judges, despite protests by the party’s own religious right. Many will welcome this renewed commitment to gender equality, especially in view of the party’s deplorable response to the controversy its assistant secretary-general Aishath Aniya found herself in earlier in the year.

Has the international community sold out to Gayoom?

by Donim on November 13, 2006

It looks like it. More than a hundred people, who did nothing more than to stand up for their basic rights, are languishing in prison because the Maldives government believes the international community will not do anything to stop it.