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Fundamentalist forms of Islam direct their main attention to women. A perceived need to protect the social fabric, as a domain which represents the ‘Islamness’ of the people, focuses on resurrecting the role of women as bearers of the spiritual domain and Islamness through the concepts of women’s submission to their husbands in Islam.949 _{These ideals are new to most Maldivians, who have lived in}

their communities with little control on their mobility and freedom. Even when they chose to stay home to look after children, it was not because religion required them to. Women, according to these fundamentalist ideologies, must always be at home, submissive, docile, and serving their families. In many sections of Indian and other South Asian societies, there is “almost a paranoid fear regarding the ‘modernisation’ of women”.950 _{This is a new wave which appears to be taking}

strong hold in the Maldives and instills and facilitates exploitation of women, particularly those who are of lesser priviledge. Culture in general does not constitute an integral part of the nationalist ideology of most Maldivians. Maldives is quite open to various global cultural flows.951

947 _{Maynard and Purvis, above n 552, at 32.}

948 _{Contemporary theorists have argued that CEDAW’s centrality on “women” is a critical flaw in} the Convention and affects its ability to address gender discrimination. [See Rosenblum, above n 202; Tom Dreyfus “The Half-Invention of Gender Identity in International Human Rights Law: From Cedaw to the Yogyakarta Principles” (2012) 37 Austl Feminist LJ 33.]. They claim that CEDAW’s attempt to address an age-old “gender discrimination” issue has been less than a success because of its premise and emphasis on the biological sex binary [Dreyfus, above n 362, at 37] 949 _{Debarshi Prasad Nath and Juri Dutta “Women and Culture in India: Countering the Force of} Nativity” (2012) 4 SACS 12 at 14.

950 _{At 13.}

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In Egypt, the Islamic movements in the 1920s grew as a reaction to modernism, but also partly as a reaction to the authoritarian regimes in Egypt and how it had dealt with Islamic movements in the past.952 Whilst the State attempts to legitimise its actions, it is in no way able to control the spread of its support or its infiltration into the State structures and institutions.953 _{With a view to reconstructing the true}

community, Women in Egypt for example, were increasingly pushed into conforming to their role as symbolic antithesis to modernism, and as cultural bearers of Islamic tradition”.954 _{Women, were thus central to this Islamic discourse.}

These assertions of new identities of the true Muslim woman, and extremist Islamist injunctions, speak and shape the self, even when women were educated.955 The Islamist positions of women, primarily represented through organized groups (religion-based NGOs and political parties), promote that gender roles are divinely ordained, as legitimised through religious tradition and laws. They further claim that, “men and women were created unequal by God, so any attempt to bring equality is heretical”.956

In Saudi-Islamic Rhetorics about Visual Culture, Marwan Kraidy argues that Saudi Arabia is the most concerned, amongst the Arab countries, about social and cultural change. Saudi Arabia follows Salafi Wahhabism, which is “grounded in cultural and religious purity and gender separation”.957 _{In the Wahhabi world view, the}

woman is the bearer of authentic Islamic principles. The social space in Saudi Arabia is accordingly compartmentalised, with strict boundaries between private and public spaces.958 Women are, therefore, pushed into conforming to these roles,

952 _{Haideh Moghissi Women and Islam: Critical Concepts in Sociology (Volume III - Women’s} Movements in Muslim Societies) (Taylor & Francis, Oxon, 2005) at 169.

953 _{At 169.}

954 _{Darlene Juschka Feminism in the Study of Religion: A Reader (A&C Black, London ; New York,} 2001) at 190.

955 _{Firdous Azim Islam, Culture and Women in Asia (Routledge, London ; New York, 2013) at 61.} 956 _{At 61.}

957 _{Christiane Gruber and Sune Haugbolle Visual Culture in the Modern Middle East (Indiana} University Press, Indiana, 2013) at 275.

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and as culture bearers,959 and they continue to transmit these cultures. Often, as societies experience urbanisation and increased foreign influence, women are also found “caught at the centre of renewed definitions of cultural identity, often framed in religious terms”.960

In recent times Islamic culture has been evoked to counter Western ideologies, such as international human rights instruments, even in the Maldives. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay’s visit to the Maldives in 2011 illustrated many of the deeper underlying ideals, held by individuals, groups, and government officials, in the Maldives. During her visit, Pillay noted that flogging women convicted of extra-marital sex was an inhumane and degrading form of violence against women. In a later statement from the UN, it was noted that pending more permanent changes in the law, the government and the judiciary in the Maldives should initiate a practical moratorium on flogging.961 These comments on flogging, and the domestic law in the Maldives, were not well received. Protestors gathered outside the United Nations Building in Male’ to condemn UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay for her criticism of the Maldivian constitution, and its provisions endorsing flogging and mandating Maldivians to be Muslim.962 Her call for a public debate on flogging,963 was also struck down by the Government as the Foreign Minister confirmed during an interview that the “government will not allow debates to be held in the Maldives on issues that are against the fundamentals of Islam”.964

959 _{Moghissi, above n 952, at 170.}

960 _{Amyn B Sajoo A Companion to Muslim Cultures (IBTauris, London, 2011) at Ch 5.}

961 _{OHCHR “Opening Remarks by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay at a Press} Conference during her Mission to the Maldives” News and Events, OHCHR (United Nations, 24 November 2011) <www.ohchr.org>.

962 _{Eleanor Johntone and JJ Robinson “Maldivian Islamic groups call for arrest of UN High} Commissioner on Human Rights” Minivan News - Archive (Male’, Maldives, 26 November 2011). 963 _{Ali Nafiz “UN rights chief calls for public debate on flogging in Maldives” Haveeru Online -} English Edition (Male’, Maldives, November 2011) <www.haveeru.com>.

964 _{Ahmed Hamdhoon “Maldives Won’t Allow Debates on Anti-Islamic Issues: Foreign Minister”} Haveeru Online - English Edition (Male’, Maldives, 26 November 2011) <www.haveeru.com>.

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In 2012, the Maldivian President, Mohamed Nasheed, conceded that “an emergent religious fundamentalism had changed the way women were viewed, and treated” in the Maldives and noted that “he was distressed by religious groups who campaigned for girls to be circumcised or to be kept home from school”.965 _{In recent}

years, civil society groups have also raised the issue of female circumcision as an issue of major concern in the country. In reponse to this, in 2014, the Islamic group,

Salaf published a series of articles on their webpage, on the subject of female

circumcision in Islam.966 _{This article promotes the view that female circumcision}

is mandatory under Islam, and anything that has been prescribed by Allah for the Muslims, cannot be classified as mutilation. Famous Maldivian cleric, Dr. Iyaz, who is also the Vice President of the Fiqh Committee in the Maldives,967 argues that female circumcision is either mandatory or, in the least, highly recommended in Islam. In 2014, he also gave an opinion on the then proposed rape bill, and purported that a law on marital rape was un-Islamic and advised that members of parliament who voted for the Rape Bill, should repent.968

The discussion above shows that women bear culture, and fundamentalists are targeting women, to bear these values for future generations. The events happening in the Maldives at present, have already happened in other parts of the world, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. All, or most of the main indicators of Islamic fundamentalism in the Maldives are linked to women and tend to impose burdens on women or restrict women. Women, according to these ideals, must practice such roles to demonstrate the Islamness of the Maldivian people; the proof of its religion. If such views are to be strictly observed, gender hierarchies will be fixed in a new order in the Maldives, and introducing and implementing equality norms, such as

965 _{Ben Doherty “Female Circumcision Fear As Fundamentalists Roll Back Women’s Rights” The} Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, 25 January 2012) <www.smh.com>.

966 _{Abdulla Bin Mohamed Ibrahim “Anhen kudhin Khithaanu kurun: Islaamdheenugai} Igraaruvefaivaa Huddha Kameh (Translation ‘Female Circumcision: A Permitted Act under Islam’” (28 February 2014) Jamiyyathu Salaf <www.jamiyyathusalaf.com>.

967 _{Committee advising the Ministry of Islamic Affairs on matters of Islamic Shari’ah.}

968 _{Zaheena Rasheed “Figh Academy VP endorses female genital mutilation – Archive” Minivan} News - Archive (Male’, Maldives, 6 February 2014) <www.minivannewsarchive.com>.

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those espoused in CEDAW, will become quite impossible. Considering women as bearers of Islamic culture, this research in its evaluation of barriers (chapter 5), will examine whether women’s goals to participate in public life are affected by these factors.