President Abdulla Yameen’s government has not only failed to ensure equality for women but completely neglected to address discrimination against them, his half-brother Maumoon Abdul Gayoom said.
The ruling Progressive Party of Maldives’ (PPM) faction led by former President Gayoom released a statement in commemoration of international women’s day, which said the Yameen administration had ‘failed’ to pass laws defending the rights of women, instead using its majority in parliament to pass ‘bigger budgets for itself’.
The statement further said that President Yameen’s campaign pledges to increase opportunity for women’s political participation, develop legal frameworks to place heftier sanctions on violence against women, and pass laws that would defend their rights have rung hollow.
President Abdulla Yameen had earlier on Wednesday assured his administration’s commitment to empowering women, and said the state of women’s rights in the Maldives can potentially be exemplary.
In a speech he gave in February at an exposition displaying various artwork crafted by women, President Yameen had he stated that the government would open avenues for higher female participation in politics and corporations as well, and revealed the government’s reported plans to cap female participation in corporate boards of directors to 40 percent.
However, in a statement also released on Wednesday, the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) said that social protection and health organizations as well as the judiciary have not been ‘sensitive’ enough to violence and loss of rights that women suffer, however the commission had not provided any statistical detail.
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