Two Malaysian women caned for 'attempting lesbian sex'

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Two Malaysian women convicted of attempting lesbian sex in a car were caned in court watched by dozens of people on Monday, media and a state government official said, prompting an outcry from human rights activists.

The women, aged 32 and 22, had pleaded guilty last month to attempting lesbian sex, forbidden under Islamic law. They were sentenced to a fine and six lashings of the cane.

The sentence was carried out using thin canes in front of a packed courtroom, according to a journalist in the court.

It was the first conviction for same-sex relations and the first time a caning had been carried out in public in the Terengganu state, said Satiful Bahri Mamat, a member of the state executive council.

"Sharia criminal procedure allows the court to determine where the sentence will be carried out, and requires that it must be witnessed by a number of other Muslims," said Satiful, who attended the hearing.

Sharia is Islamic law.

Satiful said the punishment was "not intended to torture or injure".

"The reason it is carried out in public is for it to serve as a lesson to society," he said.

Muslim women arrive for prayer during the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha at a mosque in Shah Alam, Malaysia, August 22, 2018. /VCG Photo

"Inhuman and degrading"

Malaysia has a dual-track legal system, with Islamic criminal and family laws applicable to Muslims running alongside civil laws. The caning of women is banned under the civil law but allowed under Islamic laws in some states.

The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community is routinely persecuted in Muslim-majority Malaysia, where they are seen as a threat to conservative values.

(Cover: A Muslim woman gets caned after being caught in close proximity with her boyfriend in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, October 31, 2016. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters