RALAT
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=343713&version=1&template_id=45&parent_id=25
Malaysia whips women for sex out of wedlock
Publish Date: Wednesday,17 February, 2010, at 11:45 PM Doha Time
Malaysian authorities have caned three women under Islamic laws for the
first time in the Southeast Asian country, the interior minister said
yesterday.Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the sentences were carried
out on February 9 after a religious court found them guilty of having sex out
of wedlock. Two of the women were whipped six times. "It was carried out
perfectly."" Hishammuddin said in a statement. "Even though the caning did not
injure them (the women), they said it caused pain within them."
Hishammuddin's comments signal that the mostly Muslim country is now
prepared to flog Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, a mother of two, for drinking
beer, despite the international criticism that the case has garnered.
That case has put the multi-racial but mostly Muslim country's moderate
image under scrutiny at a time when it is trying to draw in investors.
Investors in New York last year asked Prime Minister Najib Razak about the
Kartika case.Malaysia has a dual-track legal system with Islamic criminal and
family laws, which are applicable to Muslims, running alongside civil laws.
Hishammuddin said Kartika's case had flagged concerns about how women should be
flogged and that the recent canings demonstrated that the prisons department
can carry out punishments in accordance with Shariah (Islamic) law.
Under these laws, the women have to be whipped in a seated position by a
female prison guard and be fully clothed.Sex out of marriage is considered
illegal under Islamic law and punishments can range from a fine to six strokes
of the cane or both.
The canings come at a time when the National Front Coalition is trying to
win over Malay Muslims who make up 55% of the 28mn population to stay in power
after Chinese and Indian minorities deserted the coalition in 2008 elections.
That means that the linchpin of the governing coalition, the United
Malays National Organisation (UMNO), cannot afford to offend conservative
voters who are mostly Malay and live in rural areas. But this could further
alienate the sizeable ethnic minorities who are concerned about the rise of
Shariah laws and increasing Islamisation in Malaysia, analysts have previously
said. Reuters
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