victim
In a recent case in the Maldives a 15-year-old girl who faced 100 lashes after she was raped by her step-father has had the sentence overturned following an international campaign.
The unamed child was handed the flogging sentence for “fornication” in February which resulted in a petition by the global campaign network Avaaz amid anger from opposition parties and women’s rights groups in the country. Two million people worldwide signed the petition calling for the sentence to be commuted.
Now the Maldivian High Court have overturned the sentence, which was hailed as a victory by Avaaz. But the organisation said that the case whad been a one-off and has now called for a moratorium on all flogging sentences in the Maldives, a country ruled by the Islamic government of President Mohammed Waheed Hassan.
The girl had been placed under house arrest just outside the capital Malé since her sentence and although now free to leave campaigners are hoping she will remain in state care to continue her education, rather than be returned to her family where she could be at risk of further abuse.
With Presidential elections due to take place early next month the opposition party, the Maldivian Democratic Party, has been campaigning for an end to harsh sentences against women, many of whom are rape victims. Women and girls face a struggle to be regarded as victims, rather than complicit perpetrators, of gender-based crimes.
A survey by Avaaz found that 92 per cent of Maldivians want a reform of national laws to protect women from sexual assault, while 73 per cent are opposed to punishments for women for “sexual crimes”. One in three women between the ages of 15 and 49 has suffered either physical or sexual abuse over the past five years. Nine out of 10 sentences for flogging in the Maldives in 2011 were given to women, while no one has been convicted of rape in the past three years.
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