Two women in Malaysia were at the mercy of public mockery following an attempt to have sex in a car which got both women canned in a religious court.
Aged 22 and 32, the two were given six lashes each in the Sharia High Court, at Terengganu State.
Officials of the Court revealed that it’s the first time such case of same-sex relations has come to their notice and it’s a first public caning.
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Human rights activists reacted with outrage. Homosexual activity is illegal under both secular and religious laws.
The caning was witnessed by more than 100 people, according to local news outlet The Star.
Malaysian rights group Women’s Aid Organisation told Reuters news agency it was “appalled by this grave violation of human rights”.
A member of the Terengganu state executive council, Satiful Bahri Mamat, defended the punishment, telling the agency it had not been intended to “torture or injure” and had been carried out in public to “serve as a lesson to society”.
