'We deserved our punishment': What three Muslim Malaysian women said after being caned for having sex outside marriage'
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 2:34 AM on 20th February 2010
Prison authorities caned the women last week after an Islamic Shariah court issued the penalty.
The caning has outraged rights groups and revived speculation that conservative Islamists, who advocate harsh punishment, are gaining influence in the country.
The three women, aged 17-25, said they turned themselves in after feeling guilty for sleeping with their boyfriends before marriage and getting pregnant.
Malaysian justice: Prison staff demonstrate to the media how the caning process was done at the Kajang prison outside Kuala Lumpur
The 17-year-old told reporters that she surrendered to Islamic authorities after her prematurely born child died.
She is now serving a six-month prison sentence.
'I know I have sinned, and I have to be punished. Strangely however, I felt that the caning was not a form of punishment but was an opportunity for me to repent and return to the right path,' she said.
She has already married her boyfriend, who has also been caned and jailed over the offence.
The other women, who have one young child each, are planning to marry their partners after they are released.
The men were also caned for having sex.
One woman, aged 25, said she was scared before the caning but knew she deserved the punishment.
All three women called on others not to make the same mistake and abstain from sex before marriage.
Journalists interview three women who were caned for having sex out of wedlock, at a prison in Kajang . They are first to be caned under the country's Islamic laws
A Prison Department official confirmed the women's comments, made at a news conference at the women's prison outside Kuala Lumpur to local, government-linked media under the watch of authorities.
He said they were reluctant to speak to other media.
It could not be confirmed whether they were speaking voluntarily.
A request with the department for interviews is pending.
Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin defended the caning this morning, saying it was 'far lighter' than what some people might imagine.
'The punishment is legitimate and in accordance with the law,' Muhyiddin said.
Human rights groups have slammed the caning, saying it is a cruel and degrading punishment and discriminates against Muslim women because Malaysian civil law - which applies to non-Muslims - bans the caning of women.
The women, who were fully clothed and sitting on a stool, received between four and six strokes with a thin rattan stick on the back, lasting a few minutes.
Another woman, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, is still waiting to be caned for drinking beer in public.
Her case received international attention last year when she became the first woman slated to receive a caning penalty.
But the punishment was deferred indefinitely amid a public outcry.
Caning of men for such offenses as rape, drug smuggling and staying illegally in the country is common.
It is administered with a thick rattan stick on bare buttocks, causing severe pain and leaving scars.
Malaysia has a two-tier justice system.
Shariah courts deal with personal matters for Muslims, who account for about two-thirds of the country's 28 million people, while non-Muslims - many of whom are ethnic Chinese and Indians - go to civil courts.
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Having said all that, can we safely conclude from the reactions above, that most of the British citizens have not totally objected to the Syariah caning being implemented against the adulterers in question?
'Spare the rod and spoil the child' is a famous proverb that we all have learned at one time or other in our life.
We who are Muslims abide by what our religion has in store for us? We do not question its rules and regulations just as I believe adherents to other faiths practice theirs.
We do not question why the Hindus pay their penance during Thaipusam by skewering themselves carrying those painful looking kavadis?
We do not question the Christians who drive long nails through their hands and feet when they allow themselves to be nailed to the cross during their religious ceremonies.
Neither do we question or comment about the Chinese who whip themselves while in a trance during their Tua Pek Kong rites?
Nor do we question the Indonesian Balinese Hindus as they stab themselves with krises during their ceremonies?
We don't! To each their own. Muslims have no say in the religious affairs of the Kaffirs and the Musyriks.
I see no reason why those who aren't Muslims ought to get into a flap and start making all kinds of statements interfering in the affairs of those who are just being punished according to the provisions of the laws binding to their faith?
Non Muslims ought to first study about the truth of the matter with regard to the Syariah laws of Al Islam before even opening their mouth to speak about something for which they have no basic right to comment in the first place.
The subject of carrying out the Syariah caning is in accordance to what Almighty Allah has prescribed to the offenders against the major sin of committing adultery, sodomy, etc?
If you can't handle the heat, stay out of the kitchen. So goes another saying that means if one is not capable of facing the consequences of going against the Laws of Allah, venture not into sin!
But as it is nowadays in this Bolehland, every Tom, Ah Seng or P.Gunasegaram who do not practice the Islamic faith perse think that they know our faith better than us hence the tendency to shoot off their ignorant mouth and expose themselves to be just what they are?
The Star has apologized about the offending article and pulled it off from their online archives but as I have stated before, you can delete whatever mistake you have just typed in your articles but once you have hit the 'Enter' button and published your piece, it will forever be available to those who know how to seek for it from the internet archives or PDF'd cached page as shown here!
I believe that the time has come for those of us Muslim Bloggers to double our efforts and help clear the confusion amongst our obviously very attentive and concerned fellow Malaysians about what is the truth with regard to the stipulations of the Islamic Syariah Code and why we need to practice what we preach or risk ending up like the proverbial cockatoos out there who only know how to parrot certain slogans and battle cries but lack the willpower to really put the faith to work as we should!
Insya Allah, it will be done!
Although it's a little cruel that this story has hit world news, sometimes it pays to give children a spank now & then. It makes them realise that they should not say or do certain things. My parents/grandparents gave us the odd spank for misbehaviour during our childhood. We thought they were cruel then, but have realised why they did so as we grew up.
You have to be cruel to be kind these days, but unfortunately parents here are not given that freedom to correct their children. No wonder we have so many yobs, teenage pregnancies etc. in society. Such kids probably never had parental training during their childhood. They don't know difference between right & wrong.
- Richard, Ilford, Essex, 19/2/2010 18:28
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