BAMAKO: The conservatists occupying northern Mali on Wednesday gave a couple 100 lashes of a whip for having a child out of wedlock as they continue enforcing Sharia law, witnesses told AFP.
“At Sankore Square in Timbuktu, a man and a woman got 100 lashes for having had a child outside of marriage,” said local official Mohamed Ould Baby.
“People were watching it was like a show. I was there, I saw the youths arriving at the square, I saw them being whipped, it is the first time I have seen something like that.”
The official said Islamic group Ansar Dine carried out the punishment.
Ansar Dine, which seized control of the north of Mali flanked by other rebel groups, has been implementing Islamic law, sharia, since late March, but this is the first time a couple has been punished in this fashion.
They have asked women to wear veils, whipped smokers and destroyed cartons of cigarettes while banning the sale of alcohol.
A hospital source in Timbuktu said the couple had sought treatment at the hospital after the beating.
The woman’s family said she is 18 years old and already has a baby, and is also three months pregnant.
An Islamic police official in the town said six other women who had had children outside of marriage would soon be “punished by Islamic law.”
While majority Muslim, Mali has long had a secular and moderate culture, with the ancient city of Timbuktu a meeting point for various tribes and religions.
The vast north of Mali, larger than France, was seized by conservatists and Tuareg rebels in a lightning advance which took advantage of a coup in the capital Bamako in the south on March 22.
However Ansar Dine took the upper hand and began implementing sharia in northern towns such as Gao and Timbuktu.
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