Figure 15: Know
wledge of Illegaal abortion by sex
s and Knowleedge of illegal abortion by ru
ural and urban areas
Know
wledge off illegal
ab
bortion, by
b sex
Men
Knowled
dge of illeegal
abortio
on, by ruraal/
urbaan status
Wo
omen
Rural
7
69.3 70.7
Urban
65.7
%
15.9
24.1
%
14.8
5.2
Yes
No
RF/DK/NA
A
23.6
74.3
16.0
Yes
10.7 9.7
No
R
RF/DK/NA
Source: SIX YEARS
Y
ON – THE RIGHTS SIDE OF LIFE, The second
s
Maldivees baseline hum
man rights survey
(HRCM)
72. A study on the Socio Cu
ultural Facto
ors and Unsaafe Abortion
ns in the Maldives provvided
qualitative re
esearch find
dings on th
he prevalence of pregn
nancy and unsafe abo
ortion
82
h. According to the study,
s
“abortions weree more com
mmon
among unmaarried youth
83
married youths than among
a
marrried couples”. The 2009 Maldives
among unm
D
Demographic
c Health Su
urvey (MDH
HS) found that from a sample of 1198 youth
y
reespondents, 39 percentt responded
d yes when asked if anyy of their unmarried friends
had told them
m that theyy had initiateed sexual acctivity.84 Furrthermore, youth
y
perception
also shows th
hat 90 percent agreed to the stateement that it is more common
c
now
w for
85
“ccouples to in
nitiate sexuaal intercoursse before maarriage”.
73. Although
A
fem
male circumcision has long been abolished in Maldives, recent
r
anecdotal
86
reeports of fem
male circumcision sugggests that it is an emergging issue forr which proaactive
m
measures
are
e necessary to be taken
n by the staate. In 2011, then the Vice
V
Presideent of
M
Maldives
Dr Mohamed Waheed Haassan expresssed concerrns about reeports of feemale
geenital mutilations occurring in Maldives. He further expreessed conceerns over peeople
ju
ustifying the
e practice on
n radio and television
t
prrograms.87 Many
M
peoplee including NGOs
N
and news we
ebsites advo
ocating for the
t rights off women raised concerns over religgious
orsing this practice
p
as something obligated in
n Islam.88 Ho
owever, it iss not
sccholars endo
cllear whethe
er any work has been do
one in this area
a
to clearrly understaand the exteent to
w
which
this prractice is occurring in Maldives.
M
Ministry of Law
w and Gend
der has informed
H
HRCM
that th
here is not enough
e
information to suggest
s
this as an emerrging issue which
w
needs to be addressed.
a
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