Indonesia: Young Couple Caned for Violating Sharia Law

By Marvie Basilan, Christian Post Contributor Friday, January 01, 2016

Being together as a couple is very much common around the world, but not in Indonesia as a young woman was caned for "affectionate contact" with a man.

According to The Independent, The Jakarta Post reported that 20-year-old Nur Elita received five agonizing lashes for "being too intimate" with Wahyudi Saputra. Commonly called "khalwat" or affectionate contact, it is punishable by law in Indonesia's province of Aceh.

CNN reported that the two were arrested two months ago after they were seen with no other people inside a room. They were then sentenced to caning and were not given the chance to speak for themselves. The outlet also said the two were "unrelated."

Sharia law prohibits unmarried people from being alone together. It goes as far as intervening in the private lives of people and anyone who violates laws within the system is sentenced to various punishments ranging from caning and imprisonment to amputation, hanging, and beheading.

Both Saputra and Elita are university students and were just two of the six people who were publicly caned in the front yard of the Baiturrahim mosque. The other four were punished for crimes including "indecency and gambling," which like "being too intimate," are all punishable under Islamic law.

One of the onlookers during the caning was Deputy Mayor Zainal Arifin and he reportedly said, "Take these punishments as a lesson. What has been done by these convicts should not be taken as an example. And I hope their canings in Meuraxa district will be the last ever."

It was also reported that Elita was carried to an ambulance after receiving the lashes, most probably from too much pain and exhaustion.

In 2003, Shariah law was granted special autonomy, and since then, Aceh province implemented the system that tackles topics such as crime, religion, marriage, trade regulations, economics, and other personal matters including sexual intercourse between married people, prayer, physical hygiene, and various others.