A woman collapsed on stage after being publicly caned for having sex outside marriage in Indonesia’s Aceh province, where Sharia law is enforced. The incident occurred during a punishment session at Taman Sari park in Banda Aceh on Thursday, October 15, with eight people punished in total.
Photos from the provincial capital showed medical staff and Sharia officers crowding around a female convict on stage after she appeared to faint during her punishment. Four people, including women, were reportedly given 100 lashes each after being convicted of adultery by the Sharia Court.
Punishment under local bylaws
Premarital or extramarital sex can be punished by up to 100 lashes in Aceh under local Islamic bylaws. The disturbing images have revived international condemnation of the public floggings, which human rights groups have repeatedly denounced as cruel and degrading.
Aceh’s Sharia punishments have been carried out for years, but collapses during the lashings are not new. A particularly severe case earlier this year saw a 21-year-old unmarried woman faint during a caning after being sentenced to 140 lashes with a rattan cane.
Previous severe case
That January case involved a couple who were ordered to receive 100 lashes for sex outside marriage and an additional 40 lashes for consuming alcohol, CBS News reported. Witnesses said three female Sharia police officers took turns striking the woman on her back as she sobbed and flinched in pain before losing consciousness, after which she was carried away on a stretcher to an ambulance.
Her male partner received the same 140 lashes. On that same January day, the couple were among six people punished, including a Sharia police officer and a woman found alone together in a private home, who were each given 23 lashes.
Sharia law in Aceh
The head of the Sharia police said they “make no exceptions” for their own members, and confirmed the officer would be dismissed from his job. Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, but Aceh is the only province allowed to enforce Sharia law, after it was granted special autonomy in 2001 as part of a peace deal to end a decades-long separatist insurgency.
Its bylaws criminalise acts including gambling, drinking alcohol, same-sex relations, premarital sex and public displays of affection, with punishments that include public flogging.
