A woman and her partner were publicly punished in Indonesia’s Aceh province after being convicted of having sex outside marriage and consuming alcohol, acts banned under local Islamic law.
The sentence—140 lashes each—was carried out in a public square, marking one of the harshest punishments imposed in the region in decades.
Aceh, the only region in Indonesia governed by full sharia law, has enforced public caning since 2001. According to Agence France-Presse, the pair received 100 lashes for pre-marital sex and an additional 40 for drinking alcohol. After the punishment, officials escorted the woman for medical attention.
The incident occurred in Aceh, where public punishments are still used for a range of offenses under Islamic codes, including alcohol consumption, gambling, and other morality-related violations. Several others were also punished at the same event, including a sharia police officer and his partner, whom authorities said were disciplined to demonstrate that no one is exempt from the law.
