Man arrested for subjecting daughters to underage marriages

A man has been arrested from A. A. Maalhos for subjecting his underage daughters to “marriages” outside of the legal system.

The man, identified by the police as a 44-year-old Maldivian citizen, was arrested at approximately 11:44 am this Saturday.

According to the police, he is suspected of supporting and propagating religious extremism, child neglect, denial of constitutional rights of his children, and subjecting some of his children to marriages outside of the legal system before they had turned 18 years of age.

The case is under further investigation by the police.

Child Rights Protection Act criminalizes the marriage of anyone who hasn’t reached the age of 18 years. It’s also labelled by the National Counter-Terrorism Center (NCTC) as an act of religious extremism.

ACTS ESTABLISHED BY NCTC AS EXAMPLES OF RELIGIUOS EXTREMISM:

• Refusal to acknowledge the national flag, the seal of the state, or the national anthem.
• Refusal to accept the national school curriculum and/or refusal to send children to school.
• Propagating ideas which promote religious extremism.
• Denying children access to internationally established healthcare rights, and/or propagating ideologies which endanger the future generation of Maldives.
• Oppression of women and children without any regard to human rights, and/or sexual exploitation of children under the guise of marriage.