JIHAD WATCH.COM
Of course, as they're already under the thumb of Sharia enforcers, they can't be sure of what might happen if they said anything else. An update on this story. "Malaysian women say caning "good" for them," by David Chance for Reuters, February 18:
KUALA LUMPUR - Three Malaysians who became the first women to be caned under the country's Islamic laws said they "deserved" their punishment and that it would help stem sex outside marriage.
The three women were caned for having sex out of wedlock in a move that has angered human rights activists and some lawyers who say the punishments are illegal in this mainly Muslim country that runs parallel civil and Islamic justice systems.
"I deeply regret my actions as I should have married before having sex," the New Straits Times newspaper quoted one of the women who it said was aged 17, as saying in its Friday edition.
The newspaper did not reveal the womens' real names and a picture showed the three clad in traditional Malaysian dress and headscarves seated before reporters.
A propaganda photo-op.
The 17-year old said that she had become pregnant and gone into labor while at school, losing the baby, and then had turned herself in to the authorities last December.
A second woman said she had to support her family after her father left home and had a three-year-old daughter out of wedlock. She said that she too turned herself in due to feelings of guilt.
All three women were caned on February 9 and the punishments were announced by Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein on Wednesday.
Hishammuddin said they were "carried out perfectly."
The punishment of six strokes of the rattan is carried out while the women are fully clothed and while they are seated. The person administering the punishment is not allowed to raise their arm above shoulder level.
"Even though the caning did not injure them, the three women said it caused pain within their souls," Hishammuddin said.
The caning has received widespread support from Muslim groups in this Southeast Asian country of 27 million people where around 55 percent of the population is Malay and Muslim.
"The guilty have also repented and there is no proof of injuries at all. What is the problem now?" Fadhalina Sidek, vice president of the Islamic Youth Movement was quoted as saying on the Malaysian Insider website....
Here's an easy one, Sidek: Adultery takes two. Where are the men in this story?
UPDATE: This report (thanks to Ayeesha) notes that the men were also caned. There was no mention, however, of their being paraded in front of the media in this manner.
