Twenty-two women were among the 39 who received six strokes for Syariah offences that included incest and intercourse among unmarried couples in Johor.
Two other women, as reported in Berita Harian, managed to get a deferment to their punishments - as one is pregnant and the other had recently delivered a baby - and are presently in confinement.
They are the first batch of syariah offenders in Johor handed down the sentence in the closed quarters of the Kajang prison.
The Johor Islamic Affairs Department (JAJ) is weighing suggestions for sentences to be meted out in public or in mosques.
The punishments are in line with the Syariah Criminal Offences Enactment implemented nationwide, but had only just been implemented in Johor over the past two months, as reported by the daily in its front page today.
The offenders were men and women aged from 20 to 50 after undergoing trial for two years.
A man and a woman were the first to be punished on April 4 for incest.
It was also noted that seven men and nine women received the sentence, for having sex when single on May 17.
Senior assistant director of enforcement of the JAJ, Mohd Zambri Kambari, said this was the first time that such a punishment was meted out in Johor, as offenders in the past had been previously fined RM5,000, or jailed for three years.
Zambri emphasised that the strokes are to create self-realisation and awareness for the individuals concened as well as the public and not actually a form of punishment.
"That is why we are considering to have the punishment be done in the open or in mosques," he said, adding that its observations showed that the punishments had created the desired awareness among the public.
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