Indonesian women caned in public for selling food during Ramadan under sharia law

JAKARTA - Two Indonesian women were caned in public on Friday for selling food during Muslim festival of Ramadan.

According to The Telegraph, both the 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 22-year-old Rukiah Abdullah and 27-year-old Murni Amris received two and three lashes respectively 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,” Marzuki Abdullah, Aceh’s sharia police head said.

Amris reportedly owned the food stall where Abdullah was selling the rice.

Muslims are supposed to fast from dawn to dusk during the holy month of Ramadan, and these two women were punished for violating the rules under the Islamic sharia laws.

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 for Muslim adulterers and a law under which homosexuality is punishable by long prison terms. (ANI)