“Work Hard, Pay Rent, Die”

Shortly after Mariyam Sadha* moved to Malé in 2002, at the age of 14, her father was thrown into jail and her brother lost his job at the airport. She had just started eight grade at Aminiya School, but was forced to work at the grocery store and tutor younger students to help pay rent.

Without a constant source of income, Sadha’s mother began housing students from the atolls in their two bedroom apartment. There were eight people sleeping in her room, Sadha recalls. She finished tenth grade exams with excellent grades, but could not pursue further education.

“How could I? I could see what my parents were going through, I could not add to their burden,” the tall young woman says, adjusting her scarf.

Instead, as soon as she turned 18, Sadha married to “escape” her congested house. Soon afterwards, she  became pregnant.

Sadha took night classes, but could not complete her business management degree with a young child and a resort-worker husband whom she sees once every few months. But at 25, she says she is “now out of all that shit”, due to a stable income from a travel agency job. However, she continues to spend most of her earnings on rent.

“This is modern slavery. The system is built so that the average person does not have any savings. I earn a lot more than those who work in the government. But at the end of the month, me and my husband together, we don’t have anything.”...read more