Woman Got Whipped 100 Times For Having Pre-Marital Sex With Boyfriend In Indonesia

A woman cried as she pleaded with a masked sharia officer to stop whipping her in a public ceremony in Indonesia's deeply conservative Aceh province on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old woman, who was being punished for having pre-marital sex, was among three people who were publicly whipped 100 times.

Woman breaks down as she is publicly whipped 100 times for having pre-marital sex with her boyfriend in Indonesia

Dozens of people watched as the two men and the woman were canned in a stadium in Lhokseumawe, some 170 miles from the provincial capital Banda Aceh.

Flogging is used as punishment for a range of offences in the region at the tip of Sumatra island, including gambling, drinking alcohol, and having gay sex or relations outside of marriage.

On Wednesday, the woman and her boyfriend, who is also 22, received 100 strokes each after they were caught having pre-marital sex.

The woman broke down several times due to the pain of the punishment, forcing the sharia officer to stop the canning until she was cleared to continue by a doctor.

Fakhrillah, an official from the local prosecutor's office, said the flogging was held inside a stadium to prevent children from watching.

Aceh is the only province in the world's biggest Muslim-majority country that imposes Islamic law.

In December, two men caught having sex with underage girls were whipped 100 times each in Aceh.

Rights groups have slammed public caning as cruel, and Indonesia's President Joko Widodo has called for it to end, but the practice has wide support among Aceh's population.

Indonesia is notorious for its public displays of brutality, along with other nations such as Malaysia, which has sparked outrage by human rights groups.

Aceh, where public caning was introduced in 2005, is the only province in Muslim-majority Indonesia that is governed by the strict Sharia law, a concession granted by the central government in 2001 as part of a peace deal to end a long-running insurgency.

It is the only province in Indonesia that has implemented Sharia law and considers lesbian, gay, bisexual relationships and sex outside of marriage as law violations.

Others have been caned for adultery, gambling, and drinking or selling alcohol.

Amnesty International said the caning marked "an appalling day" for human rights in Malaysia.