Terengganu, woman sentenced to corporal punishment under Sharia law
A single mother was found guilty of the sin of 'khalwat' (closeness) in a state ruled by the Islamist party. The sentence - a first - is scheduled to be carried out in Marang prison on 6 May. A case destined to represent a thermometer of the power relations with fundamentalists in Anwar Ibrahim's Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) – In Malaysia, in the north-eastern state of Terengganu, governed by the Islamists of the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS), a woman was sentenced to beatings for inappropriate relations with a man, applying sharia, Islamic law. If carried out, it would be the first case of its kind in the state.
Nurfifi Amira Nawi, who is 37 years old and a mother of one, was charged under section 31 (b) of the Syariah Criminal Offenses (Takbir) (Terengganu) (Amendment) Enactment 2022, for being alone with a 40-year-old man who was not her husband in a house in Kemaman district on January 31st.
Nurfifi Amira pleaded guilty to the crime. Judge Rosli Harun then sentenced her to six strokes of the cane and a fine of 4,000 ringgit (785 euros), as well as eight months in prison. The defendant had already been convicted of a similar crime in 2018 and had been fined.
The judge also advised Nurfifi Amira to get married immediately to avoid committing a similar crime again. “You said earlier that you were going to get married, but it didn't happen. There is no remorse in you,” the judge told the woman, also advising her not to get married in the border town of Golok, Thailand, where Muslim couples enter into clandestine marriages.
PAS has governed the north-eastern states of Terengganu and Kelantan since 2018. Ideologically centered on Islamic fundamentalism, its electoral base is largely concentrated on the four rural and eastern coasts of Peninsular Malaysia, including the conservative north, particularly in Kelantan, Terengganu, Perlis and Kedah.
With these victories, PAS has pushed to toughen punishments under Islamic law through each state's Sharia penal code. However, the party has to deal with new actors now after the government of Najib Razak, which supported the PAS agenda, lost its electoral mandate. In the past, former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed had blocked PAS attempts to pass Islamic laws in Kelantan and Terengganu.
The National Trust Party (Amanah), a PAS splinter party that is now part of the governing coalition under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's "unity government", is expected to block PAS attempts to push for the implementation of sharia.
However, PAS and the coalition it is part of today - Perikatan Nasional - performed well in the last elections. The Islamist party won the most seats and the Perikatan Nasional pact reaffirmed its control over four state governments from August 2023. This has led many observers to suggest that a "green" or "Islamist" wave is transforming the political landscape of Malaysia.
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22/03/2024 16:27
