Comment: Maldivian leaders must act now to protect women, girls and the country’s reputation
06 Apr 2013, 4:24 PM
Ricken Patel
In the last two weeks, nearly two million people across the world – including many people in the Maldives – have reacted in horror to the tragic story of a 15-year-old rape victim sentenced to be publicly flogged.
Sadly, this terrible case highlights a wider injustice: the yawning gap between the punishments applied to men and women in the Maldives.
A 2007 study by the Maldivian government’s own Ministry of Gender and Family showed that as many as one in three women between the ages of 15 and 49 have suffered either physical or sexual abuse. And fornication requires both a man and a woman, but 90% of those sentenced to flogging in the Maldives in 2011 were women.
How is this situation a reflection of justice, Islamic or any other kind?
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