In Terengganu, Malaysia, the rattan now falls in mosques, before the faithful. In Iran, thieves still lose their fingers, and in 2024 the Taliban’s supreme leader vowed to stone adulterous women in public. Each punishment has its text. Quran 24:2 orders a hundred lashes for unlawful sex, warns “do not be taken by pity for them”, and asks that “a group of the believers witness their punishment”. Quran 5:38 orders the thief’s hand cut off, and 5:33 adds crucifixion and cross-amputation for those who “wage war against Allah”. Stoning appears in no verse, yet the caliph Umar called it an obligation revealed by Allah (Bukhari 6829). Wherever these texts become law, the penal code is written on the human body.
On September 15, the syariah appeal court of Terengganu, in Malaysia, sentenced a man of 41 and a woman of 20 to six strokes of the rattan each, for having twice been caught alone with someone of the opposite sex. The prosecutor had found the fine too lenient. The caning is due by mid-October, and the state now has nine mosques licensed for the purpose.
In Banda Aceh, a man and a woman convicted of adultery were caned 100 times each before a crowd that included children. It is the province's latest reminder that holding hands can be a punishable offence.
In March 2024, supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada pledged to flog and stone women in public. Rights groups now count 2,745 people subjected to corporal punishment between February 2022 and April 2026, and the U.N. says 2025 broke every previous record.
Our partners
