Yahoo – AFP,
November 28, 2016
A religious officer canes a woman for spending time in close proximity with a man who is not her husband in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, on November 28, 2016 (AFP Photo/Chaideer Mahyuddin) |
Banda Aceh
(Indonesia) (AFP) - An Indonesian woman screamed in agony Monday as she was
caned in Aceh, the latest in a growing number of women to be publicly flogged
for breaking the province's strict Islamic laws.
Aceh is the
only province in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country that imposes
sharia law. People can face floggings for a range of offences -- from gambling,
to drinking alcohol, to gay sex.
In the
latest caning, five people -- two women and three men -- were flogged in front
of a cheering crowd at a mosque in the provincial capital Banda Aceh.
The
34-year-old woman who yelled in pain had been found guilty of spending time in
close proximity with a man who was not her husband in contravention of Aceh's
Islamic regulations.
She was
lashed seven times with a rattan cane by a man wearing long robes and a hood,
with just slits for the eyes.
"It
hurts so bad," the woman said, raising her arms into the air, as she was
beaten.
The
32-year-old man with whom she was caught was also flogged seven times.
Two
university students, both 19, received 100 lashes of the cane after they
confessed to sex outside marriage. They stared at the ground as they were
flogged, showing little emotion.
A man found
guilty of sex outside marriage was flogged 22 times although his partner, who
is two-months pregnant, is still waiting to learn her fate after facing trial
at an Islamic court.
However
Aceh authorities typically spare pregnant women from canings.
Aceh, on
Sumatra island, began implementing sharia law after being granted special
autonomy in 2001, an attempt by the central government in Jakarta to quell a
long-running separatist insurgency.
Islamic
laws have been strengthened since the province struck a peace deal with Jakarta
in 2005, and there has been a particular increase in the number of women being
caned in recent times.