Social organization
The Maldivians see themselves as calm and peaceful people. The Tangier explorer Ibn Battuta described them as far back as the fourteenth century as people who "know neither fighting nor war and whose weapons are prayer". Throughout their history, the Maldivians have offered little resistance to foreign colonization, with the exception of the guerrilla war against the Portuguese invasion in the 16th century. For example, the Maldivian police are not equipped with lethal weapons. For a long time, the Maldivians lived in seclusion on their islands, with extremely limited population movements. Thus, in the small islands, the dhoni owners are at the top of the social ladder. With their boats, they hold the key to employment, trade and transport. Without them, the island would remain isolated from the rest of the archipelago. Next in line are the maavadi meeha (shipwright), the hakeem (doctor), the blacksmith and the jewellery maker. At the bottom of the social ladder is the raaveria, the coconut grove keeper who harvests the sap from the trees to produce syrup. The representatives of the Muslim community, imams and muezzins, occupy a special place, respected by all members of the community. They are the guarantors of spiritual life and the holders of knowledge. The family constitutes the societal foundation. Traditionally, it is the only place where men and women live together. The man is the head of the family. He makes all the important decisions, eats before his wife and children, and is responsible for providing for the material needs of his family. The women take care of the home and the children. They weave coir ropes to be used on the dhonis. The girls help their mothers to run the house from the age of 6, while the boys enjoy greater freedom until the age of 12. They then go fishing with their fathers. In this Islamic republic, only religious marriage is recognised. It is pronounced by the cadi, in the presence of the groom, his father, the father of the bride and two witnesses. The presence of the bride is only optional. In the Maldives, the celebration of marriage is rarely an occasion for celebration, except in the most affluent circles. A man may marry up to four women, but he rarely marries more than two, as he has to support them and provide a house for each. Since cohabitation is strictly forbidden, marriage has become a formality of some kind to allow an affair. The Maldives has the highest divorce rate in the world, with nearly 11 divorces per 1,000 people per year. By the age of 30, 50% of Maldivian women have been married four times. In order to limit the damage, the Maldivian government has put an end to the custom of thalaaq. A man only had to say the word once and inform the cadi in order to repudiate his wife. Since 2000, men and women had had the same rights in matters of divorce. They must go before a court, which will attempt reconciliation and will only grant a divorce if this is impossible. Despite the prohibition of sexual relations outside marriage, it seems that the reality is more nuanced. On the other hand, it is better not to get caught. Sharia law, the Islamic law, provides for exile for men and house arrest for several months for women. If an illegitimate child is born, the woman receives 100 strokes of the cane and her imprisonment is increased to 3 years. The man is punished with caning and exile only if he admits the facts.
Education
Schooling has been compulsory since 1968 and has raised the literacy rate of Maldivians to 98%. Each island has a public school that provides education up to the end of secondary school. For high school, one has to go to the main island of the atoll, which often represents a sacrifice for the less well-off families, as education is not free in the Maldives. In addition, Maldivians attend a Koranic school to learn the Koran and Arabic from an early age. These are exclusively recitation and memory exercises, as Maldivians do not speak Arabic. English had been included in the public school curriculum since 1960. Maldivian children are expected to be able to express themselves in either Divehi or English from the age of 7. Due to the population explosion, Maldivians attend school in half-days to ensure a rotation of classrooms. There is only one university in the country, located in Male. It opened in 2011 and offers higher education geared towards the needs of the country: education, health, tourism, IT, civil engineering, law, business, journalism, divehi and English. The courses of study do not go beyond the Master's level. In fact, the children of wealthy families go abroad to study in Sri Lanka, India, Egypt, Australia or Europe.
Habitat
Maldivians do not own land. It belongs exclusively to the State. Nevertheless, every Maldivian had the right to build a house on the island where he or she was born or where he or she had lived for more than six years. The 15 x 30 metre plots are allocated free of charge and the houses can be passed on by inheritance. The oldest houses can be recognized by their walls built of crushed coral. This technique is now forbidden and the houses are built with concrete bricks. Palm roofs have been replaced by corrugated iron or imported tiles. With few openings, the houses are often dark and rudimentarily furnished. A few hammocks and benches that also serve as beds, an udhoali, a swing that hangs in front of the house or in the courtyard, make up the essential. The richest families own a dhoni, the traditional Maldivian boat that allows them to go fishing. It is built from scratch by the local carpenter who reproduces an age-old model ad infinitum. Only the materials have changed somewhat. Imported wood has replaced coconut for the hull. Motorization replaced the cotton sail in the 1980s.
