From the emirate of Sharjah, in July 2006:

Two young girls who stripped with the intent to have sex with two plainclothes cops have been sentenced to 60 lashes each for practising prostitution and adultery.

The Federal Supreme Court has upheld the verdict of the Court of Appeal which convicted the two girls in the 14-15 years age group.

The court records show that the public prosecution accused Aiysha S. (15) and Noora E. (14) of practising prostitution on March 1 last year as well as on previous days. The prosecution indictment stated that the girls, who are Muslims and unmarried, have committed adultery with men, and used to practise prostitution. The pair had enticed the police undercover agents to the sin, the prosecution further charged and requested the court to penalise them according to the Shariah rules and Articles 363/1 and 368 of the Federal Penal Code.

On July 4 last year, Sharjah Criminal Court had acquitted the two suspects. The prosecution challenged the verdict at the Criminal Court of Appeal in Sharjah, which on August 23 last year annulled the lower court’s ruling, and ordered the girls to be flogged 60 times each.

The two contested the verdict at the apex court, which turned down their plea, and upheld the Court of Appeal’s judgment.

A new report notes that, despite the extensive coverage of  the “lashes for wearing trousers” cases, “whipping is not confined to north Sudan”:

Sudanese women also get beaten for wearing trousers due to Christian orders in the country’s south. In October 2008, a southern Sudan cabinet minister said that more than 20 women were arrested and beaten for allegedly dressing inappropriately under a new edict against “bad behaviour”.

“Between 20 and 30 girls were picked up from different points, hurled into police lorries, arrested and taken to the police station and some of them were beaten,” said Mary Kiden Kimbo, the gender, social welfare and religious affairs minister in the semi-autonomous southern government.

“This is absolutely not acceptable: it is not the job of police to judge what is and what is not a correct way to dress in such a manner of blanket punishment,” she said.

The Christian police crackdown on young women wearing trousers or short skirts follows an order from the commissioner of Juba county, the capital of southern Sudan. Most of the women, said to be in their late teens and 20s, were rounded up as they left Catholic mass in Juba on Sunday, Kimbo said. Others were picked up in market places.

The order bans “all bad behaviours, activities and imported illicit cultures,” according to a copy signed by Juba’s commissioner, Albert Pitia Redantore. Inappropriate behaviour may include wearing tight trousers, short skirts or skimpy tops considered “Western” attire.

The order, dated October 2nd 2008, said it aimed to “preserve the cultural values, dignity and achievements of the people of southern Sudan, checking out the intrusion of foreign cultures into our societies, for the sake of bringing up (a) good generation.”

From today’s “New Straits Times”:

KUANTAN, MALAYSIA: While others could only read or imagine how the syariah rotan will be administered to a woman, about 500 people here saw a live demonstration yesterday.

Held at the state Religious Department hall, the demonstration was part of a day-long seminar on syariah which was organised by a group of 14 Muslim non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Pahang.

“It’s not as bad as reported. I hope more people could watch it, including Kartika (Sari Dewi Shukarno) and other NGOs,” said a student from International Islamic University who wanted to be known only as Zanariah.

Kartika was fined RM5,000 and ordered to receive six strokes of the rotan by the Syariah High Court here on July 20 after she pleaded guility to consuming alcohol at a hotel in Cherating last year.

She was to have been taken to the Kajang Prison this month for the caning but was released after the department decided to postpone the punishment as it was the month of Ramadan.

At yesterday’s event, a video clip on civil rotan punishment was also shown. The caning demonstration was to have been given by a prison officer. However, it was later performed by a staff from the state Mufti Department, Azlan Abdul Rahman. Azlan used a syariah-compliant rotan, which is less than 1.22 metres long and 1.25cm thick, on a fully-dressed mannequin complete with tudung.

“You cannot raise your hand above your head,” said Azlan who had earlier explained how the punishment should be carried out under the Pahang Syariah Criminal Procedures Enactment 2002. A woman must be fully dressed and allowed to sit. Each lash should be executed moderately so as not to break her skin.

From today’s Saudi Gazette:

Jeddah – A court here Saturday sentenced a female Saudi journalist after a 90-minute hearing session to receive 60 lashes for her links with the Lebanese TV network LBC which broadcast a provocative show in July, sparking outbursts against the huge popularity of often-racy offshore broadcasts in the Kingdom.

Rosanna Al-Yami said a judge dropped all charges that she had been directly involved with the Bold Red Line on Beirut-based network LBC in which a Saudi man boasted of his sex life.

She does not intend to appeal, court sources said.  The court has delayed the hearing into a second case of another female journalist involved in the show due to her health situation. However, Al-Yami said she was sentenced her to 60 lashes for having been a part-time employee for LBC’s Saudi operations. The judge said that LBC had lacked the appropriate operating license. “It’s a punishment for all journalists through me,” Yami told AFP by telephone.

AFP news agency adds a little more detail:

Yami, 22, until recently a reporter for the Arabic women’s magazine Roaa, said she did not know when her sentence would be carried out. She does not plan an appeal, saying she feared she could end up with a harsher sentence…

POSTSCRIPT – 27 OCTOBER: The Saudi king has now announced that the young woman in question has been pardoned.

Breaking news from Reuters in Sudan:

Two Sudanese women were today sentenced to 20 lashes and fined for wearing trousers, weeks after a similar case sparked worldwide controversy.

The two women were arrested at the same party as Lubna Hussein, a former journalist who was also charged with wearing trousers and publicised her case as part of a campaign against Sudan’s public order laws.

Judge Hassan Mohamed Ali sentenced each woman to 20 lashes and a fine of 250 Sudanese pounds (€73) in Khartoum East court today. The women’s supporters told journalists the punishment, often carried out immediately after a conviction, was postponed after the women launched an appeal…

The two women, one aged 25, the other 27, both of them Muslim, would not give their names to journalists. Lawyers and supporters at the trial also said they would not release the names as the women came from conservative families.

(From this free caning gallery)