From the Times of India, 16 September:

KUALA LUMPUR: Six cane strokes await the waitress who served beer to Malaysian part-time model Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno. The model was earlier sentenced for drinking in public by an Islamic court.

The waitress who has not been named was fined RM 5,000 ($ 1,429) and six strokes of cane.

These are the first two cases of women being sentenced to caning in Malaysia where Muslims are forbidden from drinking in public as per the Shariah law.

The waitress, who pleaded guilty, has appealed. A verdict is awaited, The Star said Wednesday.

Kartika, 32, a mother of two, stirred a controversy by insisting that she be caned in public in the presence of her family members and the media. The case hit international headlines and human rights and women’s bodies have appealed for doing away with this mode of punishment to a woman.

The Syriah High Court judge who has sentenced the two women, besides four men in the last five years, is unfazed by criticism and says he is merely performing his duty. Judge Abdul Rahman Md Yunos makes no apologies for his rulings, the newspaper said Wednesday after speaking to him.

“I am merely carrying out my duties as a court official as well as to society,” he was qouted as saying.  Abdul Rahman, 53, has been a Kuantan Syariah High Court judge in Pahang state since 1996. Prior to that he was the Chief Kadi, the religious preacher. On Monday he sentenced an Indonesian worker to serve a year in jail and be whipped six times for drinking alcohol in a restaurant.

Taken from this free caning gallery

A thread on a parenting forum is featuring women’s recollections in response to the question, “Did you ever get the slipper at home?” Here are a few selected contributions, right up to the latest on 6 September:

Bellavita – “Yep – only once though and it hurt like hell (1960’s child here)”

MrsGokWan – “Yep! slipper for minor things, wooden spoon for bigger infractions and once the belt. I am a 60’s child.”

TwinSetAndPearls – “child of the 80s and got slipper ( my mum had ones with heels) belts and even sticks.”

FAQinglovely – “I (and my brother) got the slipper from my dad – thinkmy mum just to use her hand to whallop us on the bum (after about 50 million warnings that she was going to do it……so never happened very often lol)”

Ilovesprouts – “my sisters and brothers used to get the belt it was a leather one whith a very large buckle oooh it was painful! at school girls got the slipper (trainer)and the lads got the cane”

LackaDAISYcal – “It was whatever mum had to hand in my house; the dog lead, a belt, a slipper, wooden spoon, the flex from the hoover… My Dad, his hand, but very rarely, only once or twice that I can remember. I never got the belt at school though it was used until I was in first/second year of high school in 1981/82 (this was Scotland).”

2cats2many – “Got the pump at school and the wooden spoon at home.”

MrsMaidamess – “I got the wooden spoon, about 3 times in my childhood, with no warning, usually when me and db were drying up, Dad washing up. We’d be fighting, bickering, barolling into the other room and suddenly, with no warning he would whip up the spoon from the draining board and come charging in and whack us on the arse with it. I rmember it was wet and covered with bubbles.”

TheProvincialLady – “I got the slipper at school once… for some incredibly mild offence. Bent over in front of the entire class   Mum lashed out randomly, so you had no idea whether she would hit you or not. ‘Just’ slaps mostly, though she would pull your pants down to do it on your bare arse – even in the street. Dad administered proper beatings”

theicepopqueeen – “God I’d forgotten about the use of the Scholl sandal! Hand, hairbrush and Scholl were common. But my mother’s piece de resistance was a riding whip and when in a really foul mood it would be the wrong end. The worst thing you could do was cry then she would hit harder and for longer”

suzybsue – “I most definitely experienced the good old slipper, and the wooden spoon, when i was growing up.”

Hassled – “I didn’t get the slipper – I got the zori (Japanese flipflop – my father was born in Japan). I can only really remember it once though – for scribbling on walls”

atigercametotea – “Yes,(born 1978!). Slipper(mostly when we were younger) and then progressed to belt (when we were a bit older), which if dad wasn’t wearing one, we were made to go get one…pick it out, so to speak! Remember coming into the living room with the belt and handing it to my dad and telling him I didn’t want it, as it hurt too much and he shouldn’t be doing it (I was about 13). He was incensed that I was arguing with him about it (probably over a minor thing as well).”

flatcapandpearls – “Born in 75, got slipper, hairbrush, belt and a walking cane, which no one needed to walk with so god knows why we had it. I was being hit like this until late teens.”

itwasntme – “I got the hand or the wooden spoon. (born in 1970) My mum was vicious with that spoon. When the “crime” was really bad, we had to pull our pants down and have the wooden spoon on a bare bum.”

PinkTulips – “wooden spoon if it was accesable… whatever was to hand if it wasn’t. squash rackets, sticks, remote controls, books, magazines and bare hands are the main ones i remember… born 1984 btw”

Carol, a columnist at the Indiana Post-Tribune, discussed her views on and experience of corporal punishment on 6 September:

An educator in a religious school somewhere had suggested that corporal punishment in school and in the home was biblically supported, and I raised a question about it. That was not smart. I thought of that last week when I saw an item in the paper about paddling policies in our schools. My experience as a spanker or a spankee is limited, so I probably was in over my head. My dad didn’t spank, and my mom usually couldn’t catch me. She probably didn’t try very hard.

She did, though, corner me one day after I allegedly had said a bad word, and washed my mouth out with soap — a popular home remedy in days gone by. The soap was the kind that floats; you remember that, right? Moms today would need a lot of soap…

Paddling in schools isn’t used much, except in some southern states — Alabama and Mississippi, for example. Maybe we need it more often; I don’t know. Some people think it makes kids better, but I don’t know if kids got to vote.

I got one paddling in school when this big teacher saw me hit a girl friend with a spitball. The lesson I learned helped me get through school: Don’t get caught!