An Indonesian Woman Caned Openly for Pre-Marital Offenses

An Indonesian Woman Caned Openly for Pre-Marital Offenses

An Indonesian woman has been beaten public for getting ‘too close’ to her partner in the days before their wedding.

Closeness is seen as a prelude to pre-marital sex in the far eastern nation which strongly adheres to Sharia Law.

The Indonesian woman and her partner both received 20 lashes each, as crowds gathered to watch their flogging. The couple were among a group brought forward for public punishment in the strict Islamic nation.

Among the group was another Indonesian Christian, who was publicly beaten for selling alcohol in the conservative province of Aceh. It is against the law to sell and consume alcohol in the country. This is considered a violation of its Islamic Law.

Jono Simbolon was arrested in October and sentenced to 36 lashes for selling illegal alcohol. He writhed in pain as a masked religious officer lashed his back with a rattan stick on a makeshift stage outside a mosque in the provincial capital Banda Aceh.

The Christian was one of 10 people – eight men and two women – beaten after Friday prayers for offences that including pimping, prostitution and gambling.

It was so unfortunately that as the offenders suffered pain, the crowd, which included children and woman cheered.

A doctor was thereafter brought in to check on Simbolon’s condition after 10 strokes. Once he was deemed to be in good condition, the continued.

He is only the third non-Muslim to suffer a public whipping since Aceh, on Sumatra island, began implementing Islamic law.

The province was granted special autonomy in 2001 in an attempt by the central government to quell a long-running separatist insurgency.

The mayor of Banda Acer, Aminullah Usman said:

“This is our government’s commitment to enforcing Islamic law.

“If there is a violation (of the law) immediately report it to the Sharia police and we will carry out a punishment like today’s caning.”