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A young woman received life imprisonment on Wednesday for killing her newborn baby.

Khadeeja, aged 21, from Bashimaage house Mundu island in Laamu atoll was sentenced by the Malé Criminal Court for a number of crimes — falling pregnant outside marriage, hiding the fact, and then burying the live baby resulting in its death.

During the investigation Khaddeja admitted that in June 1998 she took an number of contraceptive tablets. When she experienced stomach pains she went into her bathroom and squatted down to pass urine.

At this moment she gave birth to a baby girl and discharged the placenta. She put the live baby in a nearby bin and covered it with rubbish. Then she carried the bin to the beach and buried the baby under a tree.




Editors' note:
According to the type of Islamic Sharia law practised in Maldives, an unmarried woman who becomes pregnant is punished with 100 whip lashes and banished for one year to an island distant from her home island. The whipping is sometimes carried out in public, and usually occurs three months after the birth of the baby.

The unmarried mothers receive no financial or any other form of support from the government.

During the later part of the rule of former President Nasir in the 1970s, these contentious laws were relaxed but the current President Gayyoom reintroduced the full severity of the laws when he assumed office in 1978.