Where Couples are flogged for public display of affection
Three couples in Indonesia, were publicly flogged at the Aceh province on Thursday for breaking a law that prohibits public displays of affection.
AFP reports that a masked officer rained down between 20 and 22 strokes from a rattan cane each on three men and three women caught behaving ‘amorously,’ of which a woman gasped and fell over from the painful punishment, which was carried out in front of a mosque in the provincial capital Banda Aceh.
According to them, Indonesia’s President, Joko Widodo has called for it to end, but the practice has wide support among Aceh’s population.
Meanwhile, Banda Aceh’s mayor Aminullah Usman, repeated his long-held claim that the punishment is a deterrent.
“But we keep telling visitors not to be afraid to visit Banda Aceh… because you won’t be flogged if you don’t break the law,” he said.
An eyewitness, Muhammad Rushdy, accounts that “I’m nervous because this is the first time I’ve seen something like this,” said visitor “But it can serve as an important lesson for us from other countries to comply with local regulations.”
Despite human Rights groups which slammed public caning as cruel, as well as the international community, whipping is a common punishment for a range of offences in the deeply conservative region on Sumatra island, including gambling, drinking alcohol, and having pre-marital sex.
Aceh is the only region in Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country,that enforces these laws.
