Stormclouds over the Indian Ocean: Behind the veil in the Maldives

In the tourist brochures, the Maldives look like paradise. The warm Indian Ocean laps gently against white sandy beaches where the wealthy wander barefoot, before walking back up to their lodges to bathe in private swimming pools and sleep between crisp linen sheets.

The 2004 tsunami, which displaced 11,500 people and destroyed 53 out of the 199 inhabited islands, dealt a heavy blow but the best hotels were soon up and running again, offering fresh-water showers and silver service to those who were willing to visit.

It is easy to escape reality in this archipelago of 1,200 islands. Private boats and single engine planes wait to whisk jet-lagged tourists away from the main landing strip and on to the resort islands, where they are greeted with freshly squeezed juice and a seafood menu for supper.

But while the holiday makers change into their bikinis in their £1,000-a-night rooms and recline in the sunshine, the face of the real Maldives, rarely seen by outsiders, is slowly changing. Traditionally, Maldivian women have tended to wear brightly coloured, form-fitting dresses, and sometimes small scarves to pull their hair away from their faces. Little girls have been given as much freedom as their brothers to play outside, and women have had equal rights to access to education and divorce.

But this way of life, inspired by a moderate interpretation of Islam, is disappearing. Women in the poorer, outlying villages have been switching to a full headscarf and Arabic-style, loose, flowing, dark robes. They say they prefer to stay indoors. They have begun sending their children to the local mosque to be taught by the growing number of Islamic preachers on the islands. Men have begun growing beards, and asserting their dominance. New, grand mosques have also sprung up, paid for by donors in Kuwait, Libya and Iran.

Islam has been practised in the Maldives since the 12th century, and since President Abdul Maumoon Gayoom came to power in 1978, religion and government have become increasingly intertwined. In 1997, Islam was declared the state religion and the government has declared that the Maldives is 100 per cent Sunni Muslim.

Christian missionaries became bogeymen, accused of trying to undermine the cohesiveness of Maldivian society, and citizens were banned from listening to any radio stations deemed to have a missionary message. Holidaymakers might be able to order any cocktail or wine that they wished, but any Maldivian citizens caught drinking alcohol face 100 lashes. However, while there is whipping under sharia law, there is no stoning or amputation. No registered political party or pressure group has taken responsibility for the recent changes. Instead, individual preachers have been advocating a more radical version of Islam on the poorer islands, which are cut off from the mainstream media. In a country where 93 per cent of the population are illiterate, this word-of-mouth form of conversion can be remarkably effective.

The government has been unsure how to handle the changes taking place within this Islamic society. Under President Gayoom's leadership, the country that markets itself as a luxury holiday destination has been run as an autocracy. In 1988, the President changed the constitution to give him control over the judiciary and the parliament. Freedom of speech was severely restricted and political parties were banned. This state of affairs continued until 2003, when the death of prisoners in Maafushi prison provoked mass riots.

President Gayoom reluctantly ordered an inquiry and set up a human rights commission, but the restrictions on free speech and political gatherings remained in place. In this climate of dissatisfaction, a number of opposition parties began to gather strength. The Maldivian Democratic Party began to call for multi-party democracy, while an Islamic party, Adalat, asked for a new debate on the role of Islam in the Maldives. A group of Muslim intellectuals set up an internet bulletin, Sandhaanu, to discuss religion.

The government's response was to brand these varied opposition groups traitors and arrest key members. Jennifer Latheef, a 32-year-old opposition activist, was arrested and charged with terrorism in 2004 after taking part in public demonstrations and speaking out against the government as part of the MDP. "I was handcuffed and beaten on the base of my spine - it left no marks but I still need physiotherapy today, and it was all over made-up charges," she said. "They accused me of throwing a stone during demonstrations. I didn't throw a stone, but even if I did, how does that make me a terrorist?"

The conservative Islamic reformist preacher Ibrahim Fareed was arrested in 2002 for speaking about sharia law and Islamic behaviour and charged with treason. His supporters maintain he is really being punished for speaking out about corruption in the government.

While the government has focused its attention on high-profile opponents like Mr Fareed and Miss Latheef, fundamentalist preachers have continued with their mission in the villages, using simple language and dangerously persuasive arguments to convert people to a more radical Islam.

The existence of the luxurious holiday resorts add fuel to their arguments. Tourism provides two-thirds of employment in the Maldives, and many men leave their families to go and stay at the resorts for shifts that can last three months. "These teachers go to the women in the villages and say - your men are working at these hotels, surrounded by loose women and alcohol. If you want to save his soul and your marriage you must be virtuous - cover up, stay inside, and he will come back to you," said Miss Latheef. "These women then come under tremendous peer pressure to conform."

The message that the West is a corrupt, decadent place can easily take root in a country where holiday-makers receive personal massages in their private villas, while Maldivians live with three families crammed into one tiny house. The fact that tourists dine on fresh mangoes, papayas and limes - all imported - while the Maldivian people live on a diet of rice and fish, does not help either.

The thin, sandy soil of the Maldives is not suited to agriculture and green vegetables and fresh fruit are such a rarity that one-quarter of all Maldivian children suffer from stunted growth. The government is slowly introducing new irrigation techniques which will help improve produce, but the local people cannot help wishing that some of the energy that goes into importing hand carvings from Bali for hotel shops could be transferred into overhauling their food production systems.

"Islam on the Maldives has always been incredibly laid back," said Sarah Mahir, a young Maldivian woman who runs a human rights group Friends of the Maldives. "It's never been hard to combine a modern life with Islam the way it has been practised in the capital, Male. But the holiday-makers who come here don't care if it is Ramadan or people are fasting. They eat and drink all year round, and it is easy to get some people angry about that. We always feel the tourists who come to these island resorts are somewhere, but not really the Maldives."

The government is aware that the problems facing ordinary Maldivians may affect its tourism industry, but its response has been cynical rather than hopeful. After the street protests of 2003, President Gayoom hired the British public relations firm Hill & Knowlton to improve the Maldives' image abroad. At home, however, he has yet to hold multi-party elections or guarantee the independence of the judiciary. The police force has a reputation for brutal violence and has the power to make arbitrary arrests.

The government prefers to divert attention away from its shortcomings by arguing that the real threat to stability in the Maldives comes from Christianity, not a lack of democracy. This view sometimes seems to border on paranoia. This April, for example, the minister of fisheries ordered the residents of Kulhudhuffushi island to tear down their new $75,000 indoor market built by Maldives Aid, a UK-based charity, because it was funded by "Christian missionaries". Schoolteachers from nearby Sri Lanka and India are regularly expelled from the island for trying to convert Maldivian citizens to Christianity.

"The tradition has always been that you are Muslim in the private field," said one Maldivian political analyst. "The government respects Islam but is not Islamic. However, if the government does not act soon, it will find itself overtaken by a more extreme power, instead of the pro-democracy forces it so fears."

Tourism is a vital industry for the Maldives. Half a million visitors each year provide 70 per cent of the country's foreign currency, and the resorts try to be as environmentally and culturally sensitive as they can. The challenge now is to keep the tourist dollars coming in while taking care of the spiritual and material needs of Maldivians.

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