Malé, Maldives — Ruling party Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) Women’s Wing called on the government to respect the policy of the party.
Women’s Wing released a statement supporting President of MDP and Speaker of Parliament, Mohamed Nasheed’s call to stop violating the principles of the representative democracy to get on the good side of certain parties.
The statement noted that MDP was the first political party to be established in Maldives and ever since, the party has always advocated for freedom, freedom of speech, equality and eradicating violence.
Women’s Wing highlighted one of the most important vows of MDP in both the 2018 presidential elections and 2019 parliamentary elections; to provide justice for the people who were murdered and to stop such violent acts from repeating in the country.
The Women’s Wing also reiterated the statement of Speaker Nasheed and stated that it is clearly visible that the extremism-motivated murders of former parliamentarian Dr Afraasheem and blogger Yameen Rasheed, the disappearance and murder of journalist Ahmed Rilwan along with the recent terrorist attack on Speaker Nasheed was motivated with hatred by targeting and labelling them.
Hence Women’s Wing of MDP stated that such hate crimes can only be stopped by passing the hatred bill and by making it a criminal offense to spread hatred towards certain people.
MDP works to keep a state with moderate religious views in Maldives. The party would not support anything that goes against the beliefs of Islam and believes that freedom of speech must not disobey the beliefs of Islam.
MDP Women’s Wing
However, the statement released by Women’s Wing, lead by a family member of Speaker Nasheed, Shifa Mohamed, agreed with Speaker Nasheed and stated that even the Women’s Wing believes that the decision of the government to withdraw support for its own bill as soon as conservative religious parties who are part of a political alliance with the government objected it is against the politics of MDP.
Advising the government to prioritize protecting the people’s basic rights instead of gaining temporary political advantages to make Maldives a peaceful environment, the Women’s Wing also called on the government to respect the policy of MDP and fulfil the vows the ruling party made to the people.
Youth Wing of MDP has also released a statement quite similar to the statement of MDP Women’s Wing, supporting Speaker Nasheed and calling on the government to respect the policy of MDP.
Statements from both of these Wings came after Speaker Nasheed released a statement yesterday noting that the vast majority of Maldivians are progressive and that they cherish liberty, freedom of expression, music, culture and economic prosperity along with moderate religious views. He stated that Maldives voted for progressive candidates who share their views and not religious extremists who would deny their liberty and remove the things they love the most from their society.
Speaker Nasheed stated that if the government is unable to employ the leadership required to support the hatred bill and all it stands for, then he finds it very difficult to support the government.
