Speaker: I will rise against efforts to make women powerless in name of religion

Parliament Speaker, former President Mohamed Nasheed said on Monday that some religious scholars were attempting to make women powerless in the name of religion, and that he will not stand for such efforts.

Delivering a message on occasion of International Women’s Day being celebrated this Monday, Nasheed said that efforts to make women powerless in the name of religion have gathered strength. He said that such efforts posed a great threat, and vowed to rise against such efforts.

“I vow today that we will rise against this. To work for women’s rights to the full extent possible,” said Nasheed, in a parliamentary sitting attended by Gender Minister Aishath Mohamed Didi.

Nasheed said that it is saddening that efforts to make women powerless are being made in the name of religion, and alleged that such efforts are being made by people who consider themselves religious scholars.

“We are hearing loud another philosophy advocating to make women powerless. The greatest threat, the greatest sadness is that this is being propagated in the name of religion and the people propagating this consider themselves scholars,” he said.

Nasheed also vowed to make greater effort to improve gender parity in the political arena.

“I want to make a vow on behalf of you, honorable parliamentarians and this Parliament on this day, to work together to improve the involvement of women in the Maldivian political arena, especially in the Parliament,” he said.

Nasheed said that political parties can play a key role in improving gender parity in politics. He said that representation of women in politics will improve if political parties made arrangements to back female candidates to contend in elections, including the parliamentary elections. He also noted that Maldives successfully introduced a quota for women in the local council elections with the support of political parties.

Nasheed’s vows to protect women’s rights was met with thanks from Gender Minister Aishath.