By Alyssa Misner
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Jennifer Latheef ©Private |
Photojournalist Jennifer Latheef had two strikes against her when she was arrested at a 2003 protest in the Maldives: her camera and the fact that her father was the founder of the outlawed opposition party. Latheef, 29, was photographing a demonstration against President Maumoon Gayoom, who has ruled the tropical island republic with an iron fist for the past 29 years. Six thousand protestors had gathered in the capital, Malé, to decry the deaths of five prisoners. Latheef's purpose was to document the event "so Gayoom couldn't deny that it had happened," Latheef told AI magazine, "because he would do that."
Over the next two years, authorities locked up Latheef three times for peaceful protests. She says the detentions were meant to pressure her father. In jail, Latheef was beaten, intimidated and put in a small solitary-confinement cell surrounded by drug addicts undergoing withdrawal. Guards threatened her with sexual torture and drowning. Her captors kicked her with steel-toed boots, resulting in a spinal injury for which she now receives therapy.
But Latheef remained defiant, an attitude she says is a family trait. Her grandfather and great-grandfather were tortured to death by the previous regime, she said, and her father has been a political target for years.
"I saw my father go to jail many times, and every time he came out stronger," she said.
In October 2005, Latheef was one of six people charged with "terrorism" for her presence at the 2003 protest, which led to a riot, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Amnesty International declared her a prisoner of conscience, and members from around the world responded to Urgent Actions on her behalf. For two months, Latheef suffered in prison, her back injuries untreated. "I didn't get a mattress until Amnesty International came," she said with a smile. Then a doctor and medical equipment appeared. Latheef was later placed under house arrest for eight months to better receive care.
When Gayoom offered her a pardon in August 2006, she refused-until others urged her to accept. "A pardon is like saying that it didn't matter," Latheef said. "I wanted to make sure people understood what I was fighting for. It wasn't about me." Now that she is free, Latheef, who still lives in the Maldives, is talking about her experience and building a local human rights organization, Native Operators on Rights (the acronym NOOR means "light" in Maldivian).
