Essays and published full-length features about the Maldives. This is often serious stuff.
I just read a piece in the Dhaka Tribune by Prof. Selina Mohsin, the former Bangladeshi High Commissioner to Maldives, about the plight of migrant Bangladeshi workers in the Maldives. Most of the information was not new to me; there is a reason why the Maldives has consistently been placed on the US State Department’s […]
The elections prove one thing: the Maldives electorate is yet to mature. The outcome of the election was more or less decided on November 9th, when – despite all the ugly episodes that played out in full public view – the public actually rewarded Abdulla Yameen with a slightly increased vote share. It was clear […]
Dr Hassan Saeed is an educated, articulate man. The Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) leader, former Attorney General and one time Presidential hopeful has penned a series of articles in a local daily, in which he outlines his vision for a democratic future for the Maldives – although one could argue that much of it is […]
One of the most painful, overused cliches of modern times is the saying that insanity is the act of repeating the same action over and over again and expecting different results. The Maldives, then, can be considered to be suffering from a bizarre national lunacy. On elections day a little over two months ago, some […]
Islamic radicalism, which played a key role in the ouster of the government of Mohammed Nasheed, continues to grow in the Maldives several months after his ‘resignation’. While Nasheed has repeatedly warned of the danger of growing religious intolerance, political polarisation around the issue has also meant that for the first time space has opened […]
Marx said that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. In an isolated country such as ours, with a culture that goes back thousands of years, history has become twisted beyond all recognition and ended up as an unnavigable tangle of myths and falsehoods. And it appears we are not done yet. An […]
In 1959, an expedition of historians unearthed an exquisitely carved ancient statue of Gautama Buddha from the island of Thoddoo. Buried under slabs of stones, possibly to protect it from being demolished along with the the temples following the Islamization of the Maldives in 1153 AD, the statue was a priceless archaeological find. Before long, […]
This Week in Maldives: January 8
Because you guys liked, RT’d and shared the hell out of the last edition, this week I focus on aqeeda-endangering textbooks, Dunya’s return to the dark side, and Muizzu engaged in a series of unfortunate Muizzed up things. These are short takes on the headlines of the week gone by. Dunya rejoins the regime Dunya […]
Dhoonidhoo Diaries: Part 3 – Heat and Captivity
This is the third instalment in the Dhoonidhoo Diaries series where I pen down my experiences in Dhoonidhoo prison where I was incarcerated following an unprecedented regime crackdown on the May Day rally. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. Nearly 200 democratic protesters were arrested on 1st May 2015 by the Maldives’ authoritarian […]
Dhoonidhoo Diaries: Part 2 – Prison Cell
1st May 2015 saw the largest anti-government protests in Maldivian history, with nearly 20,000 protesters filling the main thoroughfare in Malé. I was among the nearly 200 democratic protesters arrested that day, in the largest police crackdown in over a decade. I was released after being held for 21 days without trial. But several May […]
Dhoonidhoo Diaries: Part 1 – Arrest and Incarceration
1st May 2015 saw the largest anti-government protests in Maldivian history, with nearly 20,000 protesters filling the main thoroughfare in Malé. It also saw the largest police crackdown in over a decade, with nearly 200 democratic protesters arrested. I was among those arrested, and was held captive for 21 days, including 5 days of house […]
I remember the exact moment when I first saw Ahmed Rilwan. It was late 2009, and I had just arrived in the Maldives. Some bloggers had gotten together to sort of welcome me and get introduced. We were sitting in a sea-side café at night, when he walked in with two other well known bloggers. We hit […]
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