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Indonesian women caned for selling food during Muslim festival of Ramadan

This is the moment two women were publicly caned in Indonesia’s staunchly Muslim Aceh province on Friday for selling food.

Published: 4:53PM BST 01 Oct 2010



Hundreds of people gathered to watch as Rukiah Abdullah received two lashes Photo: EPA



Hundreds of people gathered to watch as Murni Amris received three lashes Photo: AFP/GETTY




Murni Amris is escorted by Syariah Police before being whipped at a mosque in the city of Jantho Photo: EPA

The two women were found guilty of selling food during the fasting hours of Ramadan, thereby violating Islamic sharia law. Hundreds of people gathered to watch as Murni Amris, 27, received three lashes and Rukiah Abdullah, 22, received two at a mosque in the city of Jantho, southeast of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

“The two women were found selling rice in a stall at noon during Ramadan. The sharia forbids selling food during fasting hours at Ramadan,” said Marzuki Abdullah, Aceh’s sharia police head. Ms Amris owned the food stall where Ms Abdullah was selling the rice. Muslims are supposed to fast from dawn to dusk during the holy month of Ramadan, which took place during August and September this year, but there are exceptions in cases such as illness or pregnancy.

Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, is one of several areas of Muslim-majority Indonesia where Islamic sharia laws have been adopted.
The conservative province passed a law last year that imposes death by stoning on Muslim adulterers and a law under which homosexuality is punishable by long prison terms.