Nasheed’s sterilization comments draws criticism

Former Maldivian President and Leader of MDP, Mohamed Nasheed’s comments that pregnancy was an unwanted consequence of extramarital sex which should be remedied by legalizing surgical sterilization for unmarried women has drawn criticism.

The comments were made by Nasheed during an event to launch the campaign of an MDP Primary candidate.

Video of the speech has gone viral over the social media and has drawn criticism against Nasheed for his comments.

“Surgical sterilization is an option only for married couples. The issue is pregnancy as a result of extramarital sex. Now, whenever someone goes with the request, they are rejected. I have visited many women giving birth. Every time, they say it isn’t possible [to perform surgical sterilization on unmarried individuals]. That the person has to be married to get the procedure done. Now the only option is for me to marry every women facing such circumstances. There’s no other solution,” said Nasheed.

“The children are conceived out of wedlock. The solution for us is to perform surgical sterilization on the women. I understand this happens due to lack of loyalty of men and unfairness on part of men. We, in reality, shouldn’t focus on the two people, but the circumstance,” said Nasheed.

Critics have accused Nasheed of endorsing extramarital sex – a sin in Islamic Sharia. And many have expressed concern over lack of response from local Islamic scholars regarding the comments.

The politician has a history of controversial comments which has drawn backlash from the conservative Maldivian community, including his comment that the society needs to find a better solution to insomnia than reciting prayers prescribed in Islam.