Agenda or opportunism? Muizzu's conservative push before council polls

At the same rally, he pledged to prohibit safari vessels from anchoring within one kilometre of inhabited islands, citing illegal alcohol sales, and declared that secular agendas would not be tolerated.

"Political ideologies that encourage irreligious activities" should not be "given space" in the Maldives' "100 percent Islamic society," Muizzu said. 

Enforcement of the promised new regulations would fall to city and island councils, he said, urging voters to back ruling party candidates in April's local council elections. Muizzu also touted his administration proposing a bill to criminalise online gambling, shutting down 104 illegal massage parlours in Malé, and introducing the death penalty for drug trafficking.

The president's remarks came days after Ilmuveringe Gulhun, an organisation of local religious scholars, urged the education minister to revert to the pre-2009 single-sex school policy, accusing former President Mohamed Nasheed's government of introducing co-education "based on a secular ideology" as part of "changes that were alien to Islamic principles and Maldivian traditions."

But Education Minister Dr Ismail Shafeeu told Sun that the government has no intention of reintroducing the gender-segregated model. 

Earlier on Thursday, the Scholars Union filed a police complaint against former MP 'Reeko' Moosa Manik over his remarks at a Maldivian Democratic Party rally. The former deputy speaker was accused of inciting hatred by labelling clerics as apostates who wield religion as a political tool. Moosa fired back by challenging the "Fatwa Committee" to answer whether "anyone has the right to say that the people in MDP are irreligious infidels".

The apparent revival of the culture war and the cascade of socially conservative policies three months before the council elections – which could be seen as a mid-term referendum on the Muizzu administration – have prompted a familiar question in Maldivian politics: is this a genuine ideological agenda or the religion card played yet again? 

Critics say it is the old playbook: weaponising religion to brand the opposition as a threat to Islam in order to appeal to religious sentiment and mobilise the conservative base – a tactic deployed against the MDP in every election cycle since 2008. But supporters say the administration is simply delivering on its mandate to uphold Islamic values, and pursuing policies that reflect the popular will, referring to complaints raised at Muizzu's recent town hall meetings in Malé.

Dr Azim Zahir, a lecturer at Curtin University's Centre for Human Rights Education and author of "Islam and Democracy in the Maldives,” cautioned against the agenda-versus-opportunism framing.

"It is more important to think about what these policies amount to rather than speculating on motives," he told the Maldives Independent. "Muizzu clearly has a more conservative social agenda, but I'm not sure how these policies would lead to more votes in elections, which are probably more shaped by local-level dynamics and party-system level (government versus main opposition) consolidation.”

On December 2, the education ministry announced that girls above nine years of age who choose skirts must wear pants underneath. Loose-fitting shirts must cover the bottom, extending two to four inches below the hip, and cannot be tucked in unless worn with a skirt.

Boys in grades nine and above will be permitted to keep moustaches and beards cut short at an even length. Keeping a beard is considered obligatory or strongly recommended in conservative Islamic jurisprudence.

The new dress code for civil servants enacted on December 30 meanwhile specified the length of women's skirts, the coverage of their chests and hips, and the permissible depth of sleeves. It appeared to bar non-hijabi women from dyeing their hair any colour other than black. Female employees must not wear dresses or skirts shorter than ankle length.

The garment must be made from “material appropriate for the office environment.” If the dress is short-sleeved, the sleeves must not be shorter than midway between the shoulder and elbow. If the upper part of a dress, shirt, or suit jacket is open from the collar, front, back, and bottom, no part of the body can be visible when arms are raised.

There are about 30,287 civil servants in the country, 67.5 percent of whom are female employees. 

The dress code sparked a backlash from opposition figures. Former MP Rozaina Adam, president of the MDP Women's Wing, questioned why the Civil Service Commission was "obsessed" with women's bodies while citizens struggle to get civil servants to answer calls.

"Unless CSC has done some research and found out that women who don't colour their hair, or tuck in, or wear their tops knee length, provide better service, dear commissioners, you need to stop acting so ridiculously," she wrote.

Writing in the Maldives Independent, former deputy speaker Eva Abdulla called the regulations "state-sponsored harassment" that forces women's bodies into public debate. People have complained for decades about corruption, bribes, and poor services, none of which prompted swift action, she noted.

"But mention women and their body parts and someone somewhere in the machinery has snapped to attention," she wrote.

Appearing on state television on Monday night, Civil Service Commission Secretary-General Abdulla Saeed defended the dress code and blamed inaccurate media reports for misconceptions among the public. The new rules address complaints about tight clothing that reveals body shape and "conspicuous" hair colours like orange or blue. Natural colours like black and brown remain permitted, he said.

Exposing parts of the body "even from a religious perspective is not a good thing," Saeed said.

The changes align civil servant attire with "socially acceptable behavioural standards," Counsel-General Ibrahim Rasheed contended. "Staff as a whole accept this," he added.

The ruling People's National Congress campaign manager and and the president's spokeswoman were not responding to calls.

The MDP's interim chairman declined to engage on the subject. "If we have an issue, we will release a statement," MP Abdul Ghafoor Moosa told the Maldives Independent.

On January 3, the MDP Women's Wing condemned the dress code as an infringement on the personal freedoms of female staff. Regulating women's clothing length and hair colour has no bearing on professionalism, and amounts to discrimination, it said in a statement, questioning why the rules apply only to civil servants and not to political appointees, independent institutions, or state-owned companies.

Critics who favour the interpretation that a conservative agenda is finally surfacing point to the 2023 campaign. At the time, Muizzu denied having a "hidden agenda" despite the endorsement of Jamiyyathul Salaf, a religious NGO led by the first lady's brother.

Shahindha Ismail, founder of the Maldivian Democracy Network and now a secretary-general of the International Federation for Human Rights, suggested that polices that disproportionately affect women and the local council elections are two separate issues, but both appear to be spaces where the president is seeking total control.

“And what more powerful tool than Islam to pressure people into submission and secure acceptance of his plans and policies?” she said. 

Religious justifications are always applied selectively, Shahindha argued. "Islam also forbids corruption – and he seems absolutely helpless when it comes to punishing corrupt politicians. Religion is only applied where it benefits the government."

She accused the government of using Islam to justify actions that erase women's lived reality and agency: "Because it is not a religious issue. It is an issue of patriarchy and the need for male dominance over women's bodies, labour, expression, and especially power."

"Ask the government – how many women and how many men were at the table where these decisions were made?"