15 year old girl sentenced to 100 lashes for being raped

Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/15-year-old-girl-sentenced-to-100-lashes-for-b...

In the tourist mecca of the Maldives, a teenage girl who was repeatedly raped by her stepfather has been sentenced to 100 lashes. There has been no public outcry by the world’s governments or by international public institutions. Human rights groups are outraged and social media is running the gauntlet to prevent the lashings.

The fifteen year old girl not only has to deal with the trauma of the repeated rapes but now also with the trauma of being sentenced to 100 lashes for having been raped.

On February 25, a Maldives Court handed down the decision under Sharia Law on the presumption that the young girl had ‘premarital sex’ (with the rapist).

There has been widespread condemnation but only by non-government human rights groups and millions of people through social media.

The girl is from one of Maldives many remote island communities – the island of Feydhoo. On February 26 she was sentenced to eight months under house arrest but the lashings cannot be handed down, according to Sharia Law, till she turns 18 years of age.

In its verdict the Juvenile Court ordered the state to transfer the girl to the Children’s Home in Villigili to enforce the sentence of eight months house arrest.

In 2009 a pregnant 18 year old woman was publicly lashed 100 times after she was forced to admit she had sex with two men.

Last September a 16 year old girl was sentenced to 100 lashes for premarital sex.

The Maldives’ Minivan News ran a story of dissent at the sentencing. On September 4, Mariyath Mohamed reported, “The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) has said it would on Tuesday discuss the case of a 16 year-old girl who was on Sunday sentenced to house arrest and 100 lashes for fornication with a 29 year-old man, confirmed Vice President Ahmed Tholal.”

“Meanwhile the man, who has been identified as Ahmed Rasheed, Finivaage, R. Angolhitheemu, has been sentenced to 10 years in jail on charges of sexual assault on a minor.”

In November 2011, UN HIgh Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, spoke out against Maldivian laws that arise in such judgments and sentences.

“This practice constitutes one of the most inhumane and degrading forms of violence against women, and should have no place in the legal framework of a democratic country,” said Commissioner Pillay.

On October 1, the Minivan New’s Hawwa Lubna reported that judicial statistics showed that 90 per cent of those convicted for fornication were female.

“Almost 90 percent of the people found guilty of ‘Zina’ – fornication – and sentenced to flogging in 2011 were female, according to new statistics published by the Department of Judicial Administration last week.”

“A total of 129 fornication cases were filed last year and 104 people sentenced, out of which 93 were female. This includes 10 underage girls (below 18), 79 women between age 18-40 and four women above 40 years.”

A 2011 UNICEF judicial report 2011 reported that 10 females were convicted for “giving birth outside of wedlock,” including a minor – a criminal offense which explicitly is directed at women and carries a sentence of maximum one to two years house arrest.

The UNICEF study explained that the current law allows for a young woman under the age of 18, who has been a victim of sexual abuse and is consequently pregnant, to receive lashings in a public setting.

“The victim must then endure the pain and public humiliation of her situation, both the illegitimate pregnancy and the public lashings, which have significant ramifications for her subsequent life opportunities. The perpetrator, on the other hand, is likely to remain publicly unidentified.”

The fifteen year old girl’s tragedy is not limited. On January 6 another Maldivian newspaper, Haveeru, reported that the Prosecutor-General’s (PG) Office pressed charges of fornication against the young girl at the Juvenile Court following a police investigation.

The Maldives Police Service forwarded their findings to the PG.

In June 2012, the young girl – a school student at the time – gave birth to a baby which was later found buried on Feydhoo. The discovery led to the arrest of four people, including her mother and stepfather.

According to the Minivan News, the then fourteen year old teenager gave birth to the stepfather’s baby, which he allegedly killed and buried.

At the time a spokesman for President Mohamed Waheed, Masood Imad, said that the teenager should be treated as a victim rather than a perpetrator of a crime.

He added, “She is not going to be lashed to cause her pain. Rather, it is for her to feel the shame for having engaged in activity forbidden by the religion.”

Amnesty International Maldives researcher Abbas Faiz said, “Victims of rape or other forms of sexual abuse should be given counselling and support – not charged with a crime.”

“The government can easily change the law with a clear majority in parliament so other girls in similar situation do not have to face this humiliation again,” said a distant family member of the young girl who lives in London.

In reference to the sentences imposed upon the young girl Mr Faiz said, “(Amnesty) urge the Maldivian authorities to immediately drop all charges against the girl, ensure her safety and provide her with all necessary support.”

“Flogging is a violation of the absolute prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. The Maldivian authorities should immediately end its use regardless of circumstances. The fact that this time a 15-year old girl who has suffered terribly is at risk makes it all the more reprehensible.”

“Flogging is not only wrong and humiliating, but can lead to long-term psychological as well as physical scars.”

On February 27, two days after the young girl’s sentence was handed down Minivan News journalist Hawwa Lubna took a courageous stance and wrote, “The Maldives Court on Tuesday sentenced a 15 year-old girl to 100 lashes and eight months’ house arrest, for having pre-marital sex with a man.”

“At any given time in the Maldives, thousands of female tourists are on the country’s beaches in bikinis, with their male counterparts. Many of them are straight and gay couples, married or unmarried, enjoying sex on rose petal-covered beds in water bungalows. For them, this chain of islands with white beaches and blue shimmering waters is a short escape to heaven.”

“While they enjoy a piece of paradise on a luxury resort vacation, just a few miles away 300,000 locals face the grim reality of a struggling democracy and increasingly radicalised interpretation of Islam.”

“Women and girls are bearing the brunt of this. Calling it sheer hypocrisy would be a gross understatement.”

“The girl’s stepfather had been raping her for years. Her mother assisted this gruesome abuse by turning a blind eye and deaf ear to her pain and cries. When the girl became pregnant as a result of rape, they pulled her out of school afraid that the community would find out the family’s dark secret. They waited patiently for nine months, and killed and buried the newborn after delivery.”

Ms Lubna reported that in the Maldives there is “also the significantly low rape convictions in cases where the rape victim is an adult. Annual judicial statistics show that in past three years, zero cases of rape have reached a positive verdict. This year alone, three rape cases have been reported, while one in three women aged between 15 to 49 are found to be victim of physical or sexual abuse – a statistic that is a reminder of a justice system that is failing women in every way possible.”

On March 21, the Minivan News reported as its lead story an international call to boycott the Maldives as a tourist destination till such time as laws were changed.

Journalists J.J. Robinson and Neil Merrett compiled the story.

“Petition website Avaaz.org has launched a campaign targeting the reputation of the tourism industry in protest over the sentencing of a 15 year-old rape victim to 100 lashes for the offence of fornication.”

“‘It is hard to believe, but a 15-year-old rape survivor has been sentenced to be whipped 100 times by a Court in the Maldives! Let’s put an end to this lunacy by hitting the government where it hurts: their tourism industry,’ declared the site.”

“The Avaaz community, consisting of over 20 million members in 194 countries, was notified of the petition yesterday (March 20). By Thursday morning, the petition had been shared more than 23,000 times just across Facebook. By midday Friday more than half a million people had signed the petition.”

“‘Tourism is the big earner for the Maldives elite, including government ministers. With a million-strong petition to President Waheed, we’ll threaten the islands’ reputation through hard-hitting ads in travel magazines and online until he abolishes this outrageous law’ the site declares.”

But former Secretary General of the Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI), Mohamed Ibrahim Sim, told Minivan News that he doubted a tourism boycott would “change the government’s position on religious issues.”

“The religious faction (in the government) is stronger than ever before. It will not affect government policy in any way – it will just attract negative publicity,” he said.

Robinson and Merrett reported, “Sim observed that while the case of the 15 year-old had led to a collision of the country’s two very separate worlds – that of the hedonistic Western resort and the far more conservative reality of the country as experienced by Maldivians – ‘exclusive resorts will still be exclusive.’”

However the President’s Office Spokesperson Masood Imad expressed hope that punishments such as floggings would be debated.

The Maldives Constitution does not allow any law that contradicts the tenets of Islam, with the criminal charge of fornication outlined under Islamic Sharia.

But Mr Masood said that the Maldives had a tradition of turning away from practices such as the death sentence and forms of corporal punishment.

Mr Masood said punishments such as removing the hand of a suspect in the case of theft had not been used since back in the 1960s.

“Reforms must be undertaken, but this must be done gradually considering we are dealing with a process embedded in society,” he said. “A certain amount of compromise may be needed.”

“As concerned global citizens, we welcome your government’s intervention in the case of the 15-year-old rape victim, but we call on you to do more to protect vulnerable women and children,” read the Avaaz petition to President Waheed.

“Real justice will only be delivered when you end the practice of flogging in the Maldives, and change the law so that it better protects the victims of rape and sexual abuse,” it added.

Robinson and Merrett reported that sources on Feydhoo had told the Minivan News that community members had been raising concerns about the girl’s abuse since 2009, “claiming that she had been victimised not only by her stepfather but reportedly by an unknown number of unidentified men on the island.”

Island Councillor Ibrahim Naushaad told Minivan News that upon discovering the child was pregnant, police and the Gender Ministry had failed to remove the girl to a shelter.

“The police and Gender Ministry didn’t take responsibility or provide counselling to the girl,” he said. “The police and ministry have investigated, but we don’t know what she had said to them.”

Ms Lubna concluded her February 27 opinion piece in the Minivan News, “With an unforgiving system and laws stating that it is a punishable offence to give birth outside of marriage, driven by a thirst to punish the victims rather than protect them, victims find themselves alone, helpless and forced to remain silent.”

The Avaaz petition:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/maldives_global/?bHRShbb&v=23290

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