Female protestors released after a week in police custody

Aishath Shadhiya, 47, (L) and Dr. Shazra Ibrahim, 36, (R) outside a custodial jail in Male' City on September 5, 2024. (Photo/Maldives Police Service)

Two female protesters were released from police custody on Thursday, a week after they were arrested from Male’ on suspicion of repeatedly harassing a foreign diplomat and demonstrating outside diplomatic missions against the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Two female protesters - Aishath Shadhiya, 47 – the wife of Islamic scholar Dr. Mohamed Iyaz Abdul Latheef, and Dr. Shazra Ibrahim – were arrested from Male’ on August 28. They had their remand extended twice.

Iyaz confirmed to Sun that both Shadhiya and Shazra were released from police custody on Thursday morning.

Aishath Shadhiya, 47, and Dr. Shazra Ibrahim, 36, have been accused of repeatedly demonstrating outside diplomatic missions. (Photo/Maldives Police Service)

According to the police, Shadhiya and Shazra repeatedly demonstrated outside diplomatic missions in violation of the laws on peaceful assembly, used megaphones to shout and use foul language, hindered the work of diplomatic missions, and also repeatedly targeted a specific ambassador with acts of harassment.

The police said that they ignored repeated warnings by the police to leave and obstructed law enforcement.

They were arrested under a court order at around 01:00 pm on August 28.

Shadhiya and Shazra had repeatedly staged demonstrations in Male’ and Hulhumale’ since as early as June. According to the police, this includes on June 16 and August 9, when they followed a foreign ambassador and left items outside his residence, including what appears to be a mock dead body covered in a white shroud.

The police did not specify which ambassador they targeted.

Aishath Shadhiya, 47, and Dr. Shazra Ibrahim, 36, are accused of repeatedly targeting a foreign ambassador. (Photo/Maldives Police Service)

Maldivians have been holding protests in the streets of the capital, Male’ City, for months, demanding that the government ban Israeli citizens from entering the country, amid mounting outrage over the atrocities in Gaza, and other occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel’s current war on Gaza, which began on October 7th, last year, has killed more than 40,800 Palestinians, many of them women and children.

It has also reduced much of the Palestinian territory to rubble, displaced the vast majority of residents, and resulted in widespread disease and malnutrition.