By: Veronica Kordmany
26-year-old Cecelia Jastrzembska was arrested earlier this week for wearing a bikini in the Maldives. The London reality star and tourist blogger is known for her appearances on the British TV shows “First Dates” and “Ninja Warrior UK”. She also considers herself to be a parliamentary adviser at the House of Commons in the United Kingdom.
Jastrzembska was arrested after strolling past a mosque and a school, in a bikini, on Maafushi, an island in the Maldives where it is illegal to wear bikinis except on designated beaches because of strict Muslim Sharia law. Police said they received a complaint that a woman was “inappropriately clad” and “inebriated” while walking on a main road Thursday afternoon.
The country, which comprises about 1,200 small islands, is located about 400 miles southwest of Sri Lanka. The Maldives is an Islamic nation in the Indian Ocean.
A video of the incident shows Jastrzembska yelling “You are sexually assaulting me!” she yells at the three officers as her male friend tries to cover part of her body with a small towel. “Anyone who gets in my personal space I’m going to have a problem with” she then yelled.
After being released after an hour and a half on Thursday, Maldives Police Commissioner Mohamed Hameed later issued a public apology over the incident. “Maldives Police Services sincerely apologizes to the tourist and the public for the regretful manner in which this incident took place.” They chose not to charge Jastrzembska.
The Commissioner also took to Twitter to express his apology, saying “I apologize to the tourist & the public for this. The challenge I have taken up is to professionalize the police service & we are working on that,” Commissioner Mohamed Hameed wrote on Twitter.
“Tourists on local islands are requested to respect the community’s cultural sensitivities and local regulations by restricting the wearing of swimwear to certain areas of the island where local communities live,” police said, according to the UK’s Standard.
Authorities sent out a statement saying, “tourists, on local islands are requested to respect the community’s cultural sensitives and local regulations by restricting the wearing of swimwear to certain areas of the island”.
According to The Guardian, “The Maldives once confined tourists to resort islets separate from the local Muslim population but in recent years has allowed foreigners to stay on inhabited islands.”
After being released, the British tourist had returned home, but officials are hoping to invite her back in the future.
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