"I completely broke down": the cyber violence pushing women out of Maldivian politics

Female politicians face relentless online attacks without legal protection.

Artwork: Dosain

24 Mar, 5:00 PM

Shahudha Mohamed

"There have been moments when I completely broke down and wanted to leave politics. The constant harassment is overwhelming," recalled 'Eleeza.' "People attack me not just as a politician but as a mother and wife...I should be home rather than in politics...My children have had to read false stories about me," echoed 'Zaayan.'

For women like 'Eleeza' and 'Zaayan' cyber violence is more than just an unpleasant encounter on the internet, it is systematically pushing them out of public service.

Women like them form the backbone of both major political parties, organising campaigns and occupying the frontlines of protests. But this evident strength and numbers at the grassroots are not reflected in positions of power – a disparity that is most glaring in the current 93-member parliament with only three female MPs.

An unchecked digital battlefield where female politicians face relentless harassment without legal protection could explain the Maldives' dismal global rank of 180th for women in parliament.

'Eleeza' and 'Zaayan' were among 54 anonymous participants (including both men and women) who shared their experiences for a parliamentary inquiry of Online Violence Against Women in Politics.

"Online violence causes anxiety, self-doubt, and withdrawal from political activities impacting women, families and children," concluded the report prepared for the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, based on qualitative and quantitative studies conducted by Villa College.

Despite equal opportunities guaranteed by the constitution and legislation, existing barriers have also manifested online, creating an evolving set of unaddressed problems.

Cyber violence and harassment forced one in four female respondents to shut down their social media accounts, the survey found, flagging a form of self-censorship that effectively removed their voices from public discourse.

Widespread and unchecked

A whopping 70 percent of participants witnessed online violence against women in politics, half of whom observed it to a "very large degree".

"Threats come in many forms – direct messages, public comments, and even hacking attempts," according to a politician referred to as 'Zuleykha' to protect her privacy.

The most common forms of violence were:

misinformation and smear campaigns (33.3 percent)

non-consensual sharing of personal photos, videos and audio recordings (29.2 percent),

body shaming, sexist remarks and threats of sexual violence (20.8 percent)

doxxing and public humiliation (16.7 percent).

"And when we talk about demographic variation, younger women, that is [the age group of] 24 to 35, [experienced] the highest prevalence of sexualised harassment," Dr Fazeela Ibrahim, Dean of Research at Villa College, noted in her presentation of the findings at a function on March 18..

Among gender-related challenges, 20.7 percent of participants reported experiencing harassment, bullying, discrimination, defamation and death threats.

Beyond trolling

The nature and forms of online violence addressed in the study included:

attacks on family roles (criticism for being a working mother or father, questioning parental fitness due to career choices)

discrediting through misinformation (false rumours about personal life, fabricated scandals)

doxxing and invasion of privacy (sharing personal details online, leaking intimate photos, stalking)

character assassination based on gender stereotypes (accusations of being "too emotional", "too aggressive", or "unfit for leadership")

attacks on appearance and sexuality (being mocked for looks, clothing, weight, gender identity, sexual orientation)

sexualised harassment (unsolicited sexual messages, explicit images, objectifying comments)

gender-based harassment (being attacked for breaking gender norms, expressing feminist views or not conforming to traditional gender roles)

threats of sexual violence (rape threats, coercion, assault threats)

threats of physical violence (death threats, threats of harm)

With the rise of AI and deep-fake imagery, new and unprecedented cases of cyber violence increasingly reported across the globe are likely to become normal in the Maldives, unless proactive measures are taken towards prevention.

Accountability gap

Primary perpetrators of online violence were found to be:

members of opposing parties or coalitions (31.5 percent)

social media users (27.8 percent)

members of the same party or coalition (11.1 percent)

voters (9.3 percent)

mainstream media (7.4 percent)

representatives of civil society organisations (5.6 percent)

family members (3.7 percent)

Close to half (42.6 percent) of respondents believed that women were equally as likely as men to engage in online violence against women in politics whilst 38.9 percent of participants thought that men were more likely to target women in politics due to societal and cultural biases.

Online violence against women in politics, involving personal attacks, misogynistic criticism, and false rumours, is further exacerbated by cultural and societal stigmas, making it difficult to hold perpetrators accountable.

"Maldives has laws against online harassment but the implementation is weak. Many women do not even bother reporting incidents because they know nothing will happen," 'Zaayan' observed.

Existing internal committees within parties were usually run by men, 'Eleeza' noted, and "when a woman faces online abuse the party often remains silent instead of offering support."

Silenced voices

The impact on women’s participation is dire, especially in a climate that already marginalises women and prevents them from stepping into prominent political roles. Participants of the study noted that being subject to online violence resulted in:

reduced political participation (29.6 percent)

reluctance to take leadership roles (29.6 percent)

negative mental health effects (27.8 percent)

harm to reputation and credibility (27.8 percent)

reduced participation in discussions due to fear of harassment or negative feedback (25.9 percent)

Since online violence can be perpetrated anonymously, the most efficient way to combat cyber violence is holding service providers accountable for content monitoring and regulation. The UK adopted this approach with the Online Safety Act of 2023, which imposes new duties on social media companies to protect users from harmful content, including harassment, highlighting the importance of accountability.

"And we are nowhere near talking about that – intermediaries, service providers. Our laws are targeting the victims and the perpetrators, but not at all the service provider, though everything is in their hands. If they want to bring down something they can do it easily," said Amish Abdulla, Senior Lecturer at Villa College's Faculty of Shariah and Law.

He noted Instagram’s swift action to take down reels containing copyrighted music due to intellectual property violations. If intermediaries could so easily and effectively take down such content, he questioned why the same could not be done with hate speech.

"[It's because] government policies and considerations are not aligned with that," he ventured.

On the specific problem, Amish stressed that the Maldives is far behind on legislation. While amendments made to the penal code and the criminal procedures code in December 2024 sought to address cybercrime in general, the Maldives lacks a specific law against online or offline violence against women in politics.

"Though protections, legal safeguards, constitutional safeguards are there, the problem is that we are way behind when talking about cyberspace. We don't have a single law that actually addresses this problem. Call it cyber violence, cyber stalking, online threats, blackmail, anything – we don't have any laws for that," Amish said.

In contrast, many countries, including close neighbours, have put legislative safeguards in place:

Malaysia regulated online content through the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) and is in the process of developing a Digital Safety Bill to address online harassment

India integrated provisions in its penal code, the Information Technology Act, and the Indecent Representation of Women Act to combat cybercrimes targeting women

Sri Lanka addressed cyber violence against women through amendments to the penal code, the Computer Crimes Act, and the newly-introduced Online Safety Act of 2024

Breaking the cycle

Based on the findings, the Westminster Foundation for Democracy urged parliament to initiate immediate changes to strengthen existing cyber laws to include violence against women in politics, which should be recognised as an aggravating factor where it is demonstrated that the cybercrime or harassment is linked to a woman's public role.

Other recommendations included:

imposing stronger legal duties on social media platforms for the safety of their users

requiring them to take strict action on removing such content within the same timeframe as they remove content that breaches copyright, and to streamline their complaints process with effective escalation systems

requiring them to run regular public awareness campaigns online

"The Maldives may find that it doesn't have the same influence with social media platforms [compared to bigger countries], which makes working with other parliaments in the region even more important," Janet Veitch, an expert with the Westminster Foundation, suggested.

"Until all the parliaments, until all the states come together and have laws about this, it's going to be easy for social media companies not to comply… So it's really important that across the region, parliaments work together, and that's why we've included it as one of our recommendations."

In addition to measures recommended for parliament, the Westminster Foundation advised working together with stakeholders such as social media platforms, government ministries and political parties to tackle the problem more seriously and to provide pathways for women to seek justice and continue unhindered participation in politics.

As the the primary perpetrators of online violence were opposing party members, political parties should immediately publish strong statements to their supporters about their values and to take a clear stand, it added.

The Westminster Foundation is currently in the process of finalising the report with input from stakeholders and more recommendations might be incorporated before submission to parliament’s human rights and gender committee.

"We hope that when this discourse goes out and we keep talking about it, there will be a day [when we have our own] intact, independent cyber legislation in addition to the existing laws to actually solve this problem," Amish said.