Maldives to achieve gender parity at its heads of missions globallly

The Maldives will soon achieve gender parity at the heads of its foreign missions, with 9 missions being headed by women and 9 by men. The Indian Ocean island country has 18 missions globally. The country recently nominated 3 new envoys including to India, of which 2 are women.  

The country's foreign minister Abdulla Shahid said, "3 out of 5 nominated, as heads of diplomatic missions are women. Once appointed, Maldives Foreign Service will have gender parity among its head of missions for the first time in the history of our diplomatic service. For us to excel, equal participation of women & men is crucial."

Acting High Commissioner of Maldives in India Aminath Shabeena has been nominated as her country's envoy to UAE. Maldives envoy to UAE Dr Hussain Niyaz has been nominated as the country's envoy to India. Both will be appointed after parliamentary approval.

Females envoys will head the Maldives missions in New York, London, UAE, Bangladesh, Malaysia, China, Pakistan, Trivandrum and UNESCAP. 40% of the executive committee of Maldives Foreign Ministry leadership is made up of females. 

In fact, it will be interesting to know, the whole delegation supporting foreign minister Shahid during his India visit in January for the annual Raisina dialogue was female. At the time, the then high commissioner of Maldives Aishah Didi, Deputy HC Shabeena, and India Department Director from the capital were all female. 

Aishath did was later appointed as Minister of Gender, Family, and Social Services.