MALAYSIA must halt the caning of two women for same-sex relations as their punishment would add to the growing discrimination of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transvestite (LGBT) community, said an international human rights group.

The women, aged 22 and 32, were arrested in April by Terengganu Islamic enforcement officers after they were found having sex in a car in a public square.

They were sentenced to six strokes of the cane each and fined RM3,300.

The caning is scheduled to take place next Tuesday.

“The scheduled caning of two women is the latest blow to Malaysia’s LGBT community, which had hoped for better protection under the country’s new government,” said Graeme Reid, director of the LGBT rights programme at Human Rights Watch.

“This prosecution and punishment will only fuel the recent wave of homophobia and transphobia in Malaysia,” he said in a statement today.

Prosecutors have said this will be the first time women have been caned for same-sex relations in Terengganu.

Reid also slammed the act of caning as an outdated form of punishment that should be abolished by the new government.

“Malaysia’s new government should stand against discrimination and brutality and foster a culture of tolerance and equality,” he said.

“As part of that effort, it should seek to abolish all laws against same-sex conduct and end the cruel practice of caning once and for all.”

The rights group said that the women’s caning came at a time when PH’s position on the rights of LGBT people in Malaysia “is under intense scrutiny”.

On August 8, the portraits of two LGBT rights activists were removed from a display at Penang’s Georgetown Festival.

In addition to state shariah laws, Section 377D of the Penal Code outlaws “any act of gross indecency with another person”, which is punishable by up to two years in prison.

The rights group said such laws had historically been used to refer to and punish same-sex conduct.

Malaysia’s Human Rights Commission chairman Razali Ismail had earlier slammed the court decision on the two women as “humiliating, demeaning, and an attempt to publicly embarrass the women and their families.” – August 22, 2018.