Women’s rights groups condemned the sentence “a travesty and a grave miscarriage of justice.”

KUALA LUMPUR — Two Malaysian women convicted of attempting lesbian sex in a car were caned in court. The dark age practice was witnessed by dozens of people on Monday which immediately condemned by human rights activists.

According to human rights activists in Kuala Lumpur, the LGBT community is routinely persecuted in Muslim-majority Malaysia. Their extreme right wing views continue to promote that the LGBT community is a threat to ‘conservative traditional values’. Where have we heard that narrative before?

Both Malaysian women aged 32 and 22, plead guilty in August to attempting to engage in lesbian sex. Such actions are forbidden under Islamic law in Malaysia. The magistrate sentenced the two women to a fine and six lashings by cane.

According to numerous media outlets who were on hand to witness the canning of the two Malaysian women, said that about 100 people were on hand at the Sharia High Court in Terengganu. A conservative state ruled by the Islamist opposition party Pan-Malaysian Islamist Party (PAS), witnessed the two women being caned.

Malaysian Women Caned in Public for Lesbian Sex

Now here is the eye opener, caning of women in Malaysia is banned under civil law. However it is allowed under Islamic laws in some several states of the country.

Amnesty International added that the two women who were canned marks “an appalling day” for human rights in Malaysia.

“To inflict this brutal punishment on two people for attempting to engage in consensual, same-sex relations is an atrocious setback on the government’s efforts to improve its human rights records,” said Rachel Chhoa-Howard, the group’s Malaysia researcher.

Even a promenent Malaysian women’s group known as ‘Justice for Sisters and Sisters in Islam’, called for a review of laws that allowed the caning of women. “The execution that took place… is a travesty and a grave miscarriage of justice,” said the groups.

This case went International as concerns from human rights activists warn of an increase around the growing intolerance of the LGBT community in Malaysia over the past few weeks.

In fact a Reuters reported that a transgender woman was beaten by a group of thugs in Seremban, south of Kuala Lumpur on Aug. 15. Activists said that this was just another example of a growing hostility towards gay and transgender people.

Article by: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer

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