On the Maldives’ “100% Muslim society”, and other fairy tales.
Last week, the Maldivian regime decided to blow up a reef in the southern island of Meedhoo in Addu Atoll. They then decided to organize a viewing party, complete with tea and snacks. Pictures of the local islanders celebrating the wanton destruction of their own island’s natural reef sparked some outrage on social media. I was momentarily […]
Two men walk into a Western Union. The girl at the counter greets them, and then almost immediately the whole thing goes south. The men, both clearly Maldivian, speak in pidgin dhivehi – used by tens of thousands of South Asian labourers in the country. They want to send money ‘home’ (presumably Bangladesh, not Maafannu). She […]
Coming out of dormancy to post this bit of exceptional writing by Xiena Saeed in the Maldives Independent. Xiena charts the course of murder convict Humam’s life against the backdrop of social and political upheavals in Maldives. Great journalism. “In 2003, Humaam was ten, Kinaanath was nineteen. Evan Naseem, a young heroin addict, also 19 […]
In December 2011, a small group of Maldivians gathered at the Artificial Beach, in silent protest against the denial of Human Rights in the Maldives. They were physically attacked almost immediately. One of the protesters, blogger Hilath Rasheed, sustained injuries. It is now exactly four years since that day. Hilath Rasheed suffered a near fatal attempt on his […]
The streets of Malé have seen a lot of spilled blood and brain matter in recent weeks – as Maldives spirals downwards rapidly, with an anti-democratic regime at the helm. MvMurders.com is an initiative to document and track violent murders in the Maldives Azra Naseem writes on the subject: “In the early hours of this […]
By Azra Naseem There is a small island of about two square kilometres, called Male’, in the Indian Ocean. It is capital of the Maldives, a 1200 island archipelago inhabited by about 300,000 people known as Maldivians. If there was a psychiatric facility on this earth that could section a generalised population, Maldivians would be among the first to be locked away […]
As a blogger, I write words and publish them online. Sometimes it is a mildly humorous piece, sometimes it is an angry rant. Sometimes I churn out 1500 word essays where I explore some boring subject in annoying detail. When I write, my objective is sometimes to persuade the reader. Other times it is to […]
Here’s the full story on the latest cycle of violence, kidnapping and appalling ass-hattery that passes off for “Islam” these days in the Maldives. Apparently, if the Prophet were alive today, he’d be stalking people on Facebook, and leading a gang of petty hoodlums to kidnap, harass and torture young people off the street. This […]
Another day. Another dead baby. It is incredibly painful to read about tiny lives, snuffed out prematurely in horrifying ways. Maldivians too easily – and too often – dismiss the creeping social rigidity and harsh moral codes of the current Wahhabi onslaught. But these tiny bodies discarded in tin cans and duffel bags are direct […]
The VP of the Maldives Fiqh Academy, Dr Mohamed Iyaz Abdul Latheef, has confirmed today that marital rape is the best rape. The comments were made in response to a question regarding the contents of the Sexual Offenses Bill. The bill, passed in late December by 67 out of 69 MPs in attendance, was returned […]
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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