A group of Sudanese women diners face up to 40 lashes – for wearing trousers. The women have been accused of dressing ‘indecently’ while dining at a popular restaurant in Khartoum, the capital.

Up to 30 police stormed the building without warning and arrested those wearing trousers, 13 women in all. Some have pleaded guilty -  so  they could ‘get it over with -  and received 10 lashes. Others though have not admitted their ‘guilt’ and could subsequently receive 40 lashes if tried and convicted by a court.

One of them, journalist Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, told how the group of policemen stormed  into the building without warning and arrested all the women wearing trousers. ‘I was wearing trousers and a blouse and the ten girls who were lashed were  wearing like me, there was no difference,’ Ms Hussein told the BBC’s Arabic  service. Ms Hussein is a well-known reporter who writes a weekly column called Men Talk  for Sudanese papers. She also works for the United Nations Mission in Sudan.

The country is split in two – Muslim in Khartoum and the north and Christian in the south. Several of those punished were from the south, although non-Muslims are not  supposed to be subject to Sharia law, even in Islamic areas.

From the Daily Mail

From a free spanking gallery on Punished Girls

A Saudi judge sentenced seven young men and four women to up to 700 lashes and jail terms ranging up to 10 months for attending an ‘immoral’ party, a Saudi newspaper reported.

The 11 revelers, including two Iraqis and nine Saudis aged between 18 and 37, received sentences of between 400-700 lashes and between 4-10 months in prison, Saudi Arabia’s Al Watan newspaper said. The group had been arrested in the northern Saudi district of Al Ha’il in late June on charges of drinking alcohol at a mixed- gender party.

Police said they had kept the group of young men and women under surveillance for days before arresting them as they drove away from one of their ‘debauched’ late-night parties. They said they had found araq, a strong alcoholic beverage made from dates, hidden in soft-drink bottles in the car.

Alcoholic drinks are banned in Saudi Arabia. The punishment for drinking alcohol is a public lashing. Private meetings between unmarried men and women is also severely punished.

From the Khaleej Times

There was outrage in June last year when the Maldives resumed the practice of public floggings:

Offenders convicted of crimes such as adultery and alcohol possession are once again being punished by lashings in Maldives, after a gap of over a year due to the death of the man who had administered the punishment. Justice minister Mohamed Muiz Adnan said the punishment had “never been suspended”, but just paused because “we had to get a new person” to carry it out.

Offenders convicted during the break would now be punished, he added. Lashes are often accompanied by a banishment sentence. According to state attorney Hussein Shameem, the corporal punishment is not aimed to cause pain, but is “mainly about the humiliation”.

The punishment resumed on 15 May, when five convicts were lashed outside Malé’s Criminal Court, in front of a crowd that “packed the street”, according to an eyewitness. Two women were lashed 100 times each for adultery… The eyewitness said: “One of the women was crying, and she put her hands over her face. But the judge said to move her hands away.”

Today’s reports bring the news up-to-date:

An 18-year-old woman was flogged in public outside the Justice Building and sentenced to a year of house arrest today for having extra-marital sex. The woman received 100 lashes after confessing to having extra-marital sex with two men on separate occasions earlier this year…

Abdulla said the courts could not prosecute the two men as Rahma was unable to provide any details about the first man and the second man denied his involvement. Latest statistics from the department of judicial administration’s website reveal that in 2006, out of 184 lashed for extra-marital sex, 146 were women.

Judge Abdulla said the goal was not to cause injury to the offender and the person administering the punishment was not to raise his arm higher than his shoulder. Flogging is dispensed with a leather paddle called a duraa in the Maldives. On why floggings were public, Abdulla said the method was prescribed in the Qur’an and its purpose was to act as a deterrent. “Because the public should know this lady or man have done these things and they will stay away from these things,” he said.