Sexual Assault Video Circulated In Male'

A mobile phone video of a schoolgirl being assaulted while tied naked to a tree is circulating in Malé.The video shows three men “sexually abusing” and “mishandling” the girl, according to the police. The police announced yesterday they had arrested the three culprits after the video came to their attention, and are investigating the crime. But the fact that the men chose to film and circulate the assault, will lead to more to claims that sexual abuse is acceptable in Maldivian society. The attack took place on 1 August in the woods on Villingilli, a commuter island, five minutes by boat from Malé. The victim is a fifteen year old student at Malé’s Aminiya school. The police will not say whether the girl accompanied the men to the island, or was picked up by the men there. The video shows the girl being abused and mishandled, while she screams out, according to the police. They have not said whether the girl is actually raped or not. Minivan News has been unable to obtain a copy of the video, but police say it was passed on to them on 8 August.The attack is the latest sexual abuse scandal in the Maldives, where the government is under increasing pressure to publicly confront the issue. Most recently three men who had sex with a twelve year old girl after breaking into her house were given eight month banishment sentences. A judge ruled the girl had consented. The ruling triggered a public backlash. Women’s rights groups Hama Jamiya submitted a petition against the ruling; a protest group on social networking site Facebook has attracted almost six hundred members; and an online petition has now been set up calling for the Gender Minister, Asihath Didi, to "come forward and publicly condemn lenient sentences passed on paedophiles."Didi's decision to publish the results of a survey into Women's Life Experiences last year was hailed as a major step in confronting sexual abuse. But Didi has refused to condemn lax sentencing, and recently said child abuse in the Maldives, "is within the norms of other countries."