(From this free spanking gallery)

From the Wall Street Journal yesterday

Malaysian authorities said Wednesday that officials caned four Muslim men and, for the first time, three Muslim women this month after being found guilty of having sex out of wedlock.

The move to cane the women under the country’s Islamic Shariah laws has raised fresh concerns about the growing political and judicial influence of Islam in what traditionally has been one of the world’s more moderate Muslim nations.

The vibrant, resource-rich country came under intense international scrutiny last year after a Shariah court sentenced 32-year-old Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno to be caned after she was caught drinking beer in a hotel bar. Many moderate Muslims and non-Muslim Malaysians saw that verdict as reflecting the growing reach of Islam in Malaysia over the past several years, although Prime Minister Najib Razak has said he won’t let Malaysia drift toward becoming an Islamist state. The caning of Ms. Kartika, who is a Muslim, still hasn’t been carried out despite her requests to the Islamic courts to get it over with.

Wednesday’s announcement that three Muslim women were caned on Feb. 9 for having illicit sex thus came as a shock to many Malaysians. “This was a big a surprise. We had no idea this was going to happen,” said Ragunath Kesavan, president of the Malaysian Bar Council. “We were always told Ms. Kartika would be the first.”

Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein waited more than a week before announcing the punishment at a news conference following the government’s weekly cabinet meeting Wednesday… All seven were found guilty of illicit sex and sentenced by a Shariah court in the Kuala Lumpur area between December 2009 and January 2010.

“I hope this will not be misunderstood, so that it defiles the sanctity of Islam,” Mr. Hishammuddin said. “The punishment is to teach and give a chance to those who have fallen off the path to return and build a better life in the future.”

Two of the women and the four men were struck six times, while the other woman was struck four times. Mr. Hishammuddin said that a doctor was present at the canings, which took place in male and female prisons, and that the offenders weren’t tied. The women were seated while they were struck, and no injuries were reported.

The idea, the officials previously have said, is to humiliate rather than injure—unlike the canings administered to drug pushers and other violators of civil laws, which can sometimes leave deep scars. The offenders, Mr. Hishammuddin said, were then “advised on ways to repent and to get closer to Allah.”

WildChild, in her mid-30s from Tennessee, posted the following anecdote back in 2006 on a parenting forum:

Oh yeah when I was in school , paddling was very popular. In fact I think it may be what kept alot of us out of trouble most of the time , just the threat of having our asses smacked with a wooden board.

At that time a parent did’nt have to give permission for a teacher or administrator to paddle a child. I can remember my sister getting her a** busted everyday for about a week because she would not do her homework so after a couple of warnings the teacher began to give her three licks with the paddle everyday until she turned it in.

Finally after the end of the week the teacher called Daddy and told him what was goin on, he ended up going to the school and paddling my sister with the teachers paddle. She never was late turning in her homework again.

(From this free softcore amateur gallery)

Nicole posted a comment in February 2009 on Dax Montana’s blog after he’d described his school paddling:

Corproal punsihement is actually still widely used in some parts of Texas–or at least it was at the high school near Dallas that I graduated from in 2001.

I took a 5-lick paddling (administered by the girls’ PE coach) for skipping (senior skip day) because choosing ISS meant you couldn’t particpate in graduation. Yes, my ass still hurts when I think about it.

Later that afternoon after swimming practice at the Y, a girl of about 10 in showers said to her Mom: ‘Look! She’s a big girl and she still gets spanked too.” After the shower, I looked in the mirror and my ass was still bright red!

A story about the rough life of girls in Philipino gangs, from the zReportage news site in January 2007, contained an interesting reference to their initiation process:

Davao’s gangs usually start out as cliques in school where they are called barkadas. They become more territorial once their members drop out of class, and eventually function as families for girls bound together by similar experiences of abuse and an adolescent desire for independence…

Most girls get sucked into gangs simply because they have boyfriends who are established members. In many of the city’s mixed gangs, the guys call the shots. They decide the date for parties, how much money everyone should chip in for alcohol, and who to send to the frontline during riots, says Taba, a founding leader of Hostage. For the most part, boys use girls to attract new members. “The girls are here pretty much for our pleasure,” Taba adds…

Tina heard about Hostage from a neighbor soon after the group’s establishment in 2000. Although it already controlled much of Boulevard’s Piapi market area in Barangay 22, the gang wanted to expand its 40-strong membership. “They need sisters,” Tina’s neighbor had told her. “Sisters” or “wives” were euphemisms for girlfriends. So she joined, and became Hostage secretary as well as Jun-jun’s girlfriend. Being part of the first batch of members and having a Hostage boyfriend also exempted her from undergoing the gang’s belt-whipping initiation ritual…     

Survival sex is widely practiced in gangs. They are where girls first learn how to indulge their adolescent concepts of love. And sexual intercourse, if it comes to that, is not necessarily consensual. Male gang members often manipulate girls and convince them to use their bodies as bargaining chips for protection or other necessities like food and cigarettes. Pure physical contact, whether or not it involves violence or an exchange of goods or cash, is equated with emotional love…. Guasa estimates that more than half of the 875 girls whom Tambayan has assisted experienced their first sexual encounter as a result of force.