This is the 4544th most frequent French word.
maintenues
"Maintenues" means "maintained" or "kept."
In this sentence, 'maintenues' is the past participle of the verb 'maintenir', agreeing in gender and number with 'règles strictes', meaning '[strict rules] were kept or preserved.'
Les règles strictes ont été maintenues malgré les protestations.
The strict rules were maintained despite the protests.
Here, 'maintenues' describes actions of upkeep, where 'données' '[data]' were kept updated by someone.
Les données ont été maintenues à jour régulièrement.
The data were maintained up to date regularly.
In this case, 'maintenues' reflects the act of preserving traditions through continuous effort or guidance.