A woman has passed out after she and her partner were lashed 100 times each for having sex outside of marriage under an Indonesian province’s draconian Sharia laws.
The woman, who was not identified, needed to be carried away after she was publicly caned in Banda Aceh, on the north end of Sumatra island, today.
A figure dressed head-to-toe in an ominous brown garb with a white mask administered the lashes.
The woman’s partner was seen grimacing as he took the punishment.
The couple were two of several people who were punished under Sharia law today.
The Banda Aceh Sharia Court and Prosecutor’s Office was punishing Sharia violators with between 25 and 100 lashes, including those involved in extramarital sex arranged through online apps.
Unmarried couples are not allowed to have sex under the harsh laws in the region of Aceh, which is the only place in Muslim-majority Indonesia to administer Sharia law.
Caning is used to punish a wide range of offences, including gambling, drinking alcohol, homosexual acts and having sexual relations outside marriage.
A woman has passed out after she and her partner were lashed 100 times each for having sex outside of marriage under an Indonesian province’s draconian Sharia laws
Unmarried couples are not allowed to have sex under the harsh laws in the region of Aceh
The woman, who was not identified, needed to be carried away after she was publicly caned in Banda Aceh
Aceh is the only region to administer Shariah law in Indonesia
A figure dressed head-to-toe in an ominous brown garb with a white mask administered the lashes
The heaviest punishments under Sharia law in Aceh are given to perpetrators of child rape.
This crime carries a sentence of up to 200 strokes of a cane, a prison term of up to 200 months or a fine of the value of up to two kilograms of gold.
In January, another woman and her partner were each lashed 140 times for drinking alcohol and having sex outside marriage in one of the harshest punishments of behaviour in the region.
The couple were struck on their backs with a stick in a public park as dozens watched on.
The woman in that case fainted, and needed to be escorted to an ambulance.
The couple were given 100 lashes for sex outside marriage and 40 for drinking alcohol.
Muhammad Rizal, the head of Banda Aceh’s Sharia police, said at the time: ‘As promised, we make no exceptions, especially not for our own members. This certainly tarnishes our name.’
Last year, two men were given 76 lashes each after they were found guilty of having sex by a sharia court.
An Acehnese man reacts to lashing during public caning punishment for violating Sharia Law in Banda Aceh, Indonesia May 21 2026
One woman was seen weeping as she was punished under Sharia law
The Banda Aceh Sharia Court and Prosecutor’s Office was punishing Sharia violators with between 25 and 100 lashes, including those involved in extramarital sex arranged through online apps.
Caning is used to punish a wide range of offences, including gambling, drinking alcohol , homosexual acts and having sexual relations outside marriage
Sharia law in Aceh was instituted in 2002 in a largely symbolic move, with further laws being passed in 2003.
Harsh laws implemented in the 2003 round included one that banned a person from being along with someone of the opposite sex who is not a spouse or a relative.
In 2018, the region began consulting the public on whether it ought to introduce beheading as a punishment, though Indonesia’s central government warned that the plans would be banned under existing national laws.
