By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
PAHANG, Malaysia – A woman in Malaysia, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, originally sentenced last July to caning for violating a Muslim law, has had her punishment commuted. The Islamic department in Pahang announced that the state’s sultan decided to spare her.
Kartika, a former model and nurse, was initially sentenced to be caned. The mother of two had pleaded guilty to the crime. At the time, if the punishment had been carried out she would have been the first woman to be caned in Malaysia, where about 60% of the 28 million people are Muslims. Kartika was supposed to receive six strokes of the cane, and a fine of 5,000 ringgit (about $2,000) for drinking beer in December 2007 at a beach resort.
Photograph of Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno and her two children. Image courtesy of: The Age.
The public reaction to Kartika’s sentence prodded an already fiery debate over whether Islamic laws should intrude into people’s private lives in this Muslim-majority country. Many people had condemned the punishment, sand expressed the concern that this was a sign that conservative Islamists are gaining influence over the justice system.
Malaysia follows a dual-track justice system. Shariah laws apply to Muslims in all personal matters. Non-Muslims – Chinese, Indians, Sikhs, and other minorities are covered by civil laws, and are free to drink alcohol. There are only three states in Malaysia, Pahang, Perlis and Kelantan that impose caning for drinking alcohol. In the other 10 states it is punishable by a fine. According to local sources, the caning would be different from the corporal punishment administered to male criminals under secular civil laws. Drug offenders, kidnappers and others are caned with a thick rattan stick on bare buttocks that break the skin and leave lifelong scars.
After Kartika was sentenced, the Prisons Department declared it was ready at any time to carry out the caning of Kartika, but were only waiting for an order from the Syariah court. Her sentence set precedent for sentencing women to caning for civil law violations again Muslim-based rules, three other Muslim women were sentenced to caning, and they became the first women to actually be caned. They were being punished for having sex out of wedlock. Allegedly their cases did not draw as much national attention, because the caning was kept a secret until after it was done. Later, the women appeared before local media and said they deserved the punishment.
In carrying out the caning sentences, the country’s prison authorities have now demonstrated their willingness to carry out caning sentences on women if ordered to do so by a Syariah court.
For more information, please see:
CNN International – Malaysia commutes woman’s caning sentence – 3 April 2010
New Tang Dynasty News – Malaysian Woman’s Caning Sentence Dropped – 2 April 2010
Tha Malaysian Insider – Outrage over women’s caning – 3 April 2010
BBC World News – Malaysia beer drink woman’s caning sentence commuted – 3 April 2010
