20-year-old woman canned for getting too close to a fellow university student

Nur Elita, 20, was accused to have allegedly committed khalwat (affectionate contact by an unmarried couple) with another university student, who was not a relation. Screaming in agony and amid the pitiless heat and humidity of the afternoon, she was thrashed repeatedly with a cane. Her face becomes a mask of pain and humiliation until she collapses forward on to the ground, clutching pitiably at her shoulder.
This incident is the latest example of Sharia law as enforced in the Indonesian province of Aceh; a remote jurisdiction where this year’s Christmas and New Year celebrations have also been banned by the strict Muslim authorities.

After the fifth strike, she reportedly fell forward to the floor. In obvious pain and distress, she had to be carried - by four uniformed women in headscarves - from the scaffold and taken by ambulance to hospital. After her ordeal, the 23-year-old man with whom she was alleged to have breached Sharia law was also beaten, as were four other locals convicted of gambling. Sometimes dozens of public canings are carried out in a single day.