The Maldives’ Misstep

The Maldives’ state-run television stations will no longer employ women who wear hejab in an effort to quell the spread of militant Islam, as a response to a September 29 bombing in the country’s capital by fundamentalists.

While their efforts include some good ideas (i.e., ceasing the glorification of a holy war), this one is a bad idea. Look at Turkey: the country has seen a rise in the very radicalism that the Maldives is trying to control. While this is just in the state-run TV stations, it might not stop there.

The foreign minister argued that covered-up women were a “security risk.” Please. While one could argue that for a niqab, hejab doesn’t pose a security threat by covering up anyone’s identity.

Besides, taking a way a woman’s right to make personal decisions like these is morally reprehensible. It could be dangerous as well: the type of people that the government wants to subdue could get all over this and use it as a justification for future actions.

I don’t know why the Maldives thinks that authoritarianism will work for them, when it hasn’t worked for anyone else.