A young girl is charged with fornication. I’m sure you can see where this one’s going.
A 15-year-old girl sentenced to 100 lashes for “fornication” on a remote part of the Maldivesis at the centre of a new row between moderates and religious conservatives in the Indian Ocean luxury tourist destination.
A court in the tiny island of Feydhoo last week sentenced the girl to a public flogging after she admitted to having sex out of wedlock, court officials have said.
The reportedly consensual sexual relations only came to light during an investigation into the murder of a baby which revealed that the girl had also been repeatedly raped by her stepfather and another man.
Words escape me. I can’t imagine the hell this poor girl has endured.
Though they appear to have initially backed the decision to prosecute the girl, Maldivian authorities are now working with the country’s ministry of Islamic affairs and judiciary to cancel or suspend the punishment, a government official said.
Masood Imad, a spokesman for the current president, Mohammed Waheed Hassan, told the Guardian that the government considered her a victim “who should not now become a victim of the law as well”.
“The law is there to protect her. It will take its course but we are fully engaged and we have some levers and we are hopeful that she will not be lashed. Let’s see who wins the day,” Imad said.
Conservatives, however, are calling for the sentence to be carried out.
Yes, those compassionate conservatives are ready to weld the whip.
“We must turn a deaf ear to the international organisations which are calling to abolish these penalties, labelling them degrading and inhumane acts or torture,” the statement read.
It’s probably not wise to ignore the voice of reason. But that’s just me.
So, what does the international community have to say about this?
“This practice constitutes one of the most inhumane and degrading forms of violence against women, and should have no place in the legal framework of a democratic country,” Pillay said at the Maldives parliament. Her comments provoked a fierce reaction from conservatives.
The case is one of many that have highlighted tensions over women’s rights and sexual violence in south Asia in recent weeks.
Protesters angered by the rape of a seven-year-old in a school were dispersed by police in the Indian capital Delhi on Friday. The gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi in December prompted weeks of demonstrations and calls for widespread cultural change.
