Maldives flogs women as punishment for sex outside marriage

Dozens of young women in the Maldives have been flogged in public as punishment for extramarital sex.

In one of the worst cases, an 18-year-old woman received 100 lashes in public earlier this month in the capital Male, less than a year after a reformist president was voted into office.

After taking power in the Indian Ocean country, loved by holidaymakers for its pristine beachers, President Mohammed "Ani" Nasheed promised rights for all following years of brutal dictatorship but has so far proved powerless to stop the brutal punishments.



Amnesty International have said that about 180 men and women are awaiting flogging after being sentenced by both informal Islamic sharia courts and criminal courts for having sexual intercourse outside marriage. The young woman punished on July 5 fainted during the flogging. Two men who were her co-accused escaped punishment.

Abbas Faiz of Amnesty International said: "Flogging is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment which is barred by international human rights law."

Farah Faizal, the Maldivian High Commissioner to London, said: "Flogging is part of the penal code which we are in the process of revising. We have our fair share of extremists like any other country but we are in the process of changing into a liberal Islamic democracy."