The best of the kinky rest – 4: Caning procedure

The next of our summer selection of the blog posts we’ve most enjoyed in recent months is this, from the ever-so-dark “News of the Lash” – which publishes news accounts of real-life thrashings from around the world, interspersed with photographs from spanking movies and of “deserving young women, the sort who look like they deserve a good thrashing”. It’s certainly not a site that’s safe for work, or for those who struggle to reconcile their kinky interests with real-world accounts.

But we were fascinated by this story, taken from the News Straits Times, describing the procedure for public canings in Malaysia:

UNCOILING faster than a snake striking, the whip lunges forward, tail singing in the air. Its journey ends with a crack as distinct as lightning, punctuated by a scream so profound it rips the sound barrier. Could this be the syariah whipping that theoretically awaits part-time model Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, sentenced to six lashes for consuming alcohol?

Er… no.

The reality of whipping under syariah is that it is actually rather light. In fact, the term “whipping” is inaccurate, because in Malaysia it is done with a rotan (rattan cane). It is not flogging or flaying, and broken skin is not allowed, says Wahid (not his real name), who metes out 100 strokes every week as a Kajang Prison whipping officer. “Syariah whipping is more like caning naughty schoolboys.”

“In syariah, the punishment is not in the force of the whipping, but to bring shame.” Under the Criminal Procedure Code, caning is physical punishment in the strictest sense and the officer must use as much force as he can muster. So, the power behind an ordinary criminal whipping (in civil law) comes from the wrist, arm, shoulder and the swing. But, for syariah offences, it comes from a fairly limp wrist.

In the syariah whipping administered by the prison authorities, the rotan has the diameter of a little finger and is thinner than the one used for criminal offences, which is as thick as a thumb…

But while a syariah whipping may be milder, it still requires a great deal of discipline and training, says Wahid. “Prison officers are called to execute syariah whippings in Kelantan because we are trained to do it.”

And even though the whipping can be administered by a civilian, Wahid thinks this is not a realistic move. “I think it would be very difficult, unless you practise often. Even (someone) who has witnessed whipping many times wouldn’t be able to do it properly…It would be lacking in skill; in art.”