Majority leader faces storm of criticism for spitting at female MP

South Asians for Human Rights, a regional human rights group, in a statement condemned Nihan’s attack on Rozaina Adam, an MP with the Maldivian Democratic Party, and criticised Speaker Abdulla Maseeh’s failure to halt the sitting.

“SAHR finds it equally regrettable that the Speaker of Parliament took no notice of the incident and continued the parliamentary proceedings. The Speaker thus seemed to endorse a highly reprehensible act of the Majority Leader, allegedly intended to insult and humiliate the female MP.”

Videos of the incident show Nihan spit out a large mouthful of water at Rozain’s face, prompting her to throw water back at Nihan. The majority leader later claimed he had been choking. However, a video of the aftermath shows Nihan saying he would do it again.