COMMENT | As far as many Malaysians are concerned, federal civil law states that no woman shall be whipped, and yet under syariah law, several women have already been caned.

Committing khalwat (close proximity) and having lesbian sex are the usual crimes for which caning is the punishment. In 2018, two lesbians were publicly whipped presumably to “increase their humiliation”.

Malaysians are subject to two laws, Federal Constitutional law and syariah; and if federal law is supreme, why are women whipped at all?

In most, if not all cases of khalwat, the women are named and shamed, whilst the man is neither named, in the news reports nor do we know if he is punished.