Couple Publicly Whipped In Indonesia For Having Sex Before Marriage

Couple Publicly Whipped in Indonesia’s Aceh Province for Premarital Sex

A man and a woman were each publicly whipped 100 times on Wednesday in Indonesia’s staunchly conservative Aceh province after being convicted of engaging in premarital sex by a court enforcing strict Islamic sharia law.
Aceh is the only region in Indonesia that enforces a version of Islamic law, which prohibits sexual activity between unmarried individuals.
 

Although Indonesia’s new criminal code, passed in 2022, also bans sex outside marriage, it is not set to take effect until next year. The punishment was carried out in a public park in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, where the pair were flogged in intervals of ten strokes with a rattan cane. According to an AFP reporter present, the woman was whipped by a female enforcer. In addition to the couple, three other individuals received a total of 49 lashes for offenses related to gambling and alcohol consumption.
 

“Today we are enforcing public caning for those found guilty of adultery, alcohol use, and online gambling,” said Banda Aceh Mayor Illiza Sa’aduddin Djamal. “This serves as a moral warning to the broader community and an opportunity for the offenders to repent.”
Medical personnel were present during the punishment in case of health emergencies.

Human rights organizations have consistently criticized such punishments, labeling them as harsh and inhumane. However, public caning remains widely supported in Aceh, where it is a standard penalty for various offenses including adultery, gambling, and drinking alcohol.
 

Earlier this year, in February, two men were subjected to over 150 lashes for engaging in same-sex relations, which are also criminalized under Aceh’s Islamic law.
 

The province was granted special autonomy in 2001, allowing it to implement sharia law as part of a peace deal aimed at ending a separatist conflict.