Written by Ever since I have been an activist, I have attracted various forms of threats. The threats were being made by both gang members (sometimes connected with political figures) and Islamists in the country. These threats vary from murder, stabbing, hacking, being stoned, thrown off buildings and enforced disappearance. There was at least time when my 10 year old son was threatened.
At first these threats were not as common and originated form anonymous social media profiles. Over time, the threats would later go on to be made from actual profiles where they have their family and close friends as connections. And the frequency would increase. There have been instances where an equivalent of a street mob has attacked me on social media. As of writing of this post, I have blocked roughly 500+ persons on my Facebook private profile (my user profile / not public page).
In the past, I have never made these threats public. But since I began work on the #FikureeIngilaabu project, I have had many opportunities to discuss with close friends and well-wishers what I would do if I was threatened for this work. It was agreed, that I would publish any new threats that are aimed at me, my colleagues, family and this work.
In the above screenshot, the person says to me “Your mothers cunt, you goat. You will come to Maldives only to attend your funeral”.
It is because of these threats, I left my home country in January 2013. Today I currently reside at an undisclosed East Asian country in self exile. While leaving my home country hasn’t reduced the amount of threats I have received, but it certainly has helped my anxieties. I no longer watch over my back when I leave the house.
At least there is that. But for how long?
Muju 6.0 