GayandRight

My name is Fred and I am a gay conservative living in Ottawa. This blog supports limited government, the right of the State of Israel to live in peace and security, and tries to expose the threat to us all from cultural relativism, post-modernism, and radical Islam. I am also the founder of the Free Thinking Film Society in Ottawa (www.freethinkingfilms.com)

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Only 80 lashes???

This 25 year old received 80 lashes for abusing alcohol and having sex outside of marriage in Iran..
His face covered by a balaclava, an official brandishing a cane repeatedly lashes the back of a man found guilty of breaking Iran's morality laws.

Two police officers hold the legs of 25-year-old Saeed Ghanbari and another his arms to ensure there is no escape from the punishment of 80 lashes handed down by a religious court.

Traffic was brought to a halt in Qazvin, 90 miles west of the capital Tehran, as more than 1,000 men gathered behind barricades to watch the public flogging.

Some took pictures on mobile telephones, others climbed traffic lights for a better vantage point as Ghanbari was marched to the centre of the square under the watch of blue-uniformed guards carrying machine guns.

A four foot long metal bench was taken from a police van and the convicted man was made to lie on it on his stomach, his fawn checked shirt pulled-up to his shoulders to expose his back and waist.

One police officer held his hands together beneath the bench, two others gripped his legs to ensure there was little movement.

Two police officers stood-by, their faces covered with balaclavas - each to administer 40 lashes.

Both men then lashed Ghanbari, taking the cane back behind their heads to guarantee maximum impact, each stroke leaving a distinctive red mark and bruising on his back.

Several wounds began to bleed.

It was unclear exactly what his offence had been as the country's strict morality laws cover many areas, but it was reported he had been convicted of abusing alcohol and having sex outside of marriage.

3 Comments:

Blogger KURSK said...

For those not in the know, the British Army and Navy commission in 1799 decided that the absolute limit a man could take with the cat 'o' nine tails was 100 lashes..after that, he would die from shock..you are playing a fairly dangerous game when you are 20 strokes away from taking a mans life..

9:51 AM  
Blogger Mark said...

The trauma inflicted via a cat of nine tails is quite different than a cane, though.

The endpoints on cats were often brandished with sharp objects that bit into and tore at the flesh of the victim, often leaving the person's flesh in shreds and their body heavily exsanguinating.

The lashes of a cane, while a brutal punishment and in no way minimized, deliver much less damage to the recipient. I don't know how many cane lashes a person can withstand, but I doubt they would die after 100.

Whichever way you look at it, the method of beating is moot: the person is being publicly whipped for breaking morality laws, which is just insane.

I wonder how many of Jack's beloved special interest groups understand what they advocate when they say we should negotiate with the Taliban and get the hell out of AFG?

11:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kursk,

the injury to the person being lashed is a secondary consideration in this process.

Public punishments are designed to make others FEAR the consequences of going against the regime - just as they were when English sailors felt the lick of the cat.

All such punishments are terrorism writ small.

Obviously, if the punishment leads occasionally to death, well so much the better - for the regime...as this possibility adds that extra zest to the level of brutality.

11:16 AM  

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