Islamic officials in Indonesia's Aceh province publicly flogged two women and two men on Thursday for having sex outside marriage, and one of the women collapsed from pain after receiving 100 lashes, according to a report from The Sun.
The woman, whose name has not been publicly released, had tears streaming down her face as a person in a brown outfit with white fabric tied around their head delivered the strikes. She passed out and had to be carried away afterward. Her male partner reportedly grimaced as he watched the beating.
The scene played out in Aceh, the only province in the world's largest Muslim-majority country that administers Sharia law. And it was not an isolated incident. Five other people were also caned on Thursday, receiving between nine and 23 lashes for offenses that included being in the proximity of a member of the opposite sex.
Under Aceh's laws, unwed couples are forbidden from having sex. Gambling, drinking alcohol, and having gay sex are also punishable offenses. Sharia was implemented in the province in 2001, and public caning retains strong local support, even though it is not a legal form of punishment under Indonesia's national law.
Muhammad Rizal, the head of Aceh's Islamic police force, offered a blunt characterization of Thursday's victims.
"The women are sex workers, and the men are their customers."
No further details about the identities, ages, or circumstances of the four people punished for sex outside marriage have been made public. No medical officials were quoted about the condition of the woman who collapsed.
Thursday's flogging was not even the worst such punishment in recent months. In January, a woman and her partner each received 140 lashes, for both drinking alcohol and having sex outside marriage. The Sun described it as one of the most severe Sharia law lashings carried out in Indonesia since the system was implemented in Aceh in 2001.
That January ceremony drew a public crowd to a park, where spectators watched the couple absorb the blows. The woman passed out as she took the final strike and was carried to an ambulance on a stretcher. Her male partner stood as his upper back was struck 140 times.
Four other people were subjected to similar punishment at the same January event. Among them: a male Sharia police officer and his female partner, who were caught near each other in a private place. Each received 23 strikes.
Rizal, who also serves as head of Banda Aceh's Sharia police, addressed the embarrassment of one of his own officers being punished.
"As promised, we make no exceptions, especially not for our own members."
"This certainly tarnishes our name."
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both repeatedly condemned the practice of caning in Aceh. Both organizations say the physical and mental torment inflicted on those subjected to public flogging breaches Indonesia's own constitution and violates international human rights laws.
Indonesia officially recognizes six religions as well as indigenous beliefs. But in Aceh, Sharia governs daily life in ways that the rest of the country does not replicate, and the punishments are carried out in public, before crowds, as a matter of policy.
The exact calendar date and specific venue of Thursday's flogging were not disclosed. No official body was named as having ordered the punishment, and no formal statute or regulation was cited in the reporting.
There is a persistent strain of Western commentary that treats all criticism of Sharia enforcement as bigotry. Entire academic departments and media organizations tie themselves in knots to avoid stating the obvious: a legal system that publicly flogs a woman until she loses consciousness for having sex is not a difference of opinion. It is a human rights catastrophe.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say as much. Indonesia's own national legal framework says as much. And yet Aceh continues, year after year, lash after lash.
The woman who collapsed on Thursday was not charged with violence. She was not accused of theft or fraud. She was beaten unconscious in public for a consensual act, under a code that criminalizes proximity to the opposite sex. The men involved received the same charge but were not reported to have collapsed.
Conservative critics of radical Islamism have long warned that the West's reluctance to name this kind of brutality for what it is only enables its continuation. When international organizations issue condemnations and nothing changes, the condemnations become wallpaper. When a province openly defies its own nation's constitution and the world shrugs, the message is clear: enforcement of human rights is optional when the violator wraps the abuse in religious authority.
One hundred lashes for sex outside marriage. One hundred forty lashes for drinking and the same offense. Public parks turned into punishment grounds. Crowds gathered to watch. Women carried away on stretchers. A Sharia police officer's own partner caned, and the chief's only concern was reputational damage to his force.
These are not allegations from political adversaries. They are observed events, reported internationally, defended on the record by the officials who ordered them.
A legal system that beats a woman unconscious in a public square and calls it justice does not need Western cultural sensitivity. It needs honest opposition, the kind that too many institutions have decided is no longer fashionable to provide.
