JOIN USKartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, is scheduled next week to be the first woman in this Muslim-majority country to be flogged under Islamic law after she was sentenced by a Shariah court for drinking alcohol at a hotel lounge last year.
“I want to send a message that I really regret what I did, so I want to be punished in front of other people,” Kartika said in a telephone interview from her northern home state of Perak. “If other Muslims can see me being caned, I hope it will convince them not to drink.”
Kartika said prison officials turned down her request on Thursday, saying she will be lashed six times with a rattan cane without any public witnesses sometime early next week.
Kartika’s penalty has led to criticism by some politicians and women’s rights activists.