The Maldives girl, with only 15 years old, will face flagellation and house arrest for 8 months
As if suffering rape by her stepfather was not enough, the girl who is 15 years old, and was charged with fornication before marriage, got a punishment of 100 lashes in Maldives. Charges against her were imposed in 2012, when the police followed the allegations against her stepfather. The man was accused of raping and impregnating the minor, killing their baby afterwards.
Prosecution of the case started after police’s investigation, who were informed that a dead baby was found buried on Feydhoo island, located in Shaviyani Atoll (north of the country). In addition to her stepfather’s accusation (who has not yet faced trial), her mother has also been charged since she failed to report the abuse to local authorities.
Zaima Nasheed, a spokesperson for the juvenile court informed that she will be under house arrest. According to the officials, both this reclusion of 8 months and the flagellation punishment will be inflicted when she comes of age (18 years old), unless personally requested earlier. Although the government has manifested its concerns about changing the law, Zaima Nasheed has supported the punishment, arguing that the minor had deliberately broken the law.
International indignation
The beauty of this exotic archipelago contrasts with the severity of its legal system (a mix of Sharia or Islamic law and the English one). This touristic paradise turns in something different for its 400.000 inhabitants; especially for young and adult women, who suffer the consequences of the literal application of the Sharia.
Since the accused girl confessed that sex was consensual, the prosecutors denied any relation to the rape case. International pressure by rights groups has led the government to reject her punishment. However, any attempt to stop it or remove it from the books has been evidenced, criticizes Ahmed Faiz, an Amnesty International researcher. The organization has defined flogging as a “cruel, degrading and inhumane” act, and reminds that it is not an isolated case.
In fact, it has just passed a month since the sexual abuse and sentence to lashes of another minor. The National Study of Violence Against Children, written by UNICEF and the Ministry of Gender and Family in 2009, found that almost one in seven students of secondary school has experienced sexual abuse in his lives. According to the Judicial statistics report of last year, 11 of the 129 persons sentenced to flogging were minors (99% of the total were women).
Despite the century old moratorium of practices such as the death sentence or cutting off hands, the penalty of lashes is still in force. Organization’s requests for its moratorium have been repeatedly rejected by governments and conservatives in the past. In the meantime, the collection of signatures (both in the country and abroad) is appealing to human and children rights for its international disapproval. Fornication is not an offence, states Amnesty International, and human rights condemn both torture and other cruel, degrading punishments.
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