The punishment
The policeman read out my name. I felt myself weakening but managed to get up from my chair and take a few steps. I remembered what Naisha had said, and after a while regained my strength. With a steady step, I moved to the door ordered by the policeman. I entered a spacious room with almost no furniture. There was only a desk and a few chairs. Behind the desk sat a man and a woman, both in summer police uniforms. In the centre there was something that looked like a medieval torture device: a stool with straps to immobilize the arms and legs. There was no air-conditioning in the room, so it was quite stuffy. I felt sweat running down my back and even my legs were sweating in tights that were too warm for this season. I was starting to feel weak again.
"Sit on the chair, and when you've recovered, get ready and we will start." The policewoman had probably noticed that I was pale and I needed to rest for a moment and recover.
***
2 days earlier
When I received a call from the police, I was sure it was nothing serious, I had probably parked somewhere wrong or misunderstood some road sign. Things like this had happened to me before, I hadn't mastered Arabic yet. We had lived here for two years. For an American woman, a foreign language is difficult, especially in the case of Arabic. Dalil had been teaching me since we got married, because it was certain that he would have to return to his country
one day, but I didn't care much about that - you can live with English here too.
When the policeman showed me a video of my being topless on the beach, I realized that the matter was serious. I had to admit that I was clearly visible in the film. Of course, I knew it was forbidden, but I had chosen a place where I felt safe. Even though the weather was already sunny, the beach was almost empty... maybe a few people on a walk. I hadn't thought anyone would report me. When I asked where they had this video from, he replied that it was sent by a child who knew my name.
" Thirty lashes" said the judge and ended the hearing. Then he informed me of the date of the sentence.
I was going to go back to work today, to school, but these "thirty lashes" had upset me so much that I called the school and said I would not come back to lessons because my head hurt so much and I had to lie down. The headmaster wished me good health and added that I shouldn't worry: he would definitely find a replacement for my class. I came home and still couldn't compose my thoughts. I called my husband but he didn't answer the phone... he probably had an important meeting.
"Can you meet me today?" I made a second call, this time to Naisha, my best friend. Maybe she could advise me. She worked at a tourist agency now, but I knew she had studied law.
"Of course; come to the Plaza Center, I'll get out early today."
The very hope of meeting Naisha calmed me down a bit, so I relaxed and, at 4:00 p.m., I got in the car and drove.
"It's not as bad as you think." Naisha wasn't surprised at all by my story. "I once received 10 lashes for participating in a street demonstration. That's the law here - if they have proof, there's nothing you can do."
"But what a law it is! We don't live in the Middle Ages; it's inhumane to punish women like this. Corporal punishment has not been used in the world for a long time," I tried to argue, although I had already accepted my fate.
"I will explain to you what this punishment looks like and how you should behave. It hurts a little but you can bear it. A lot of women have been through this already, believe me. It's nothing. You have to accept it while living in this country."
"But ten is not thirty!"
"I know a girl who got fifty lashes for having sex with another man. Her husband reported on her. Even after that, they made up for it, so those fifty slaps were probably not that scary."
When I got home, I looked through a few more websites about corporal punishment for women in Muslim countries: Indonesia is a country where corporal punishment is applied. A woman living under sharia law found as much. She was accused of engaging in extra-marital sex and sentenced to public flogging. The flogging was performed by the executioner with a rattan stick. Adultery cost the woman 100 strokes - that is the highest possible sentence. The crowd watched the suffering of the kneeling prisoner, and the men laughed and took pictures with their phones.
How good it is that there are at least no public punishments here - I thought.
***
The day my punishment was executed.
In order to undergo the sentence, I had to appear in court at 5:00 p.m., so I couldn't take time off at school. Anyway, I would have to make up a story, because in school they could figure out what was going on. It would be a shame. I also had suspicions that the video had been made by one of my students. I had taken a day off back then, and students like to spy on their teachers. However, I couldn't focus on my lessons. I was talking too fast and chaotically. I was tormented by the thought that this was a student of mine, after all. During the break I heard someone say "Our English teacher has..." Unfortunately, I didn't catch the whole sentence.
At home, I took something to calm down, put on my favorite music and lay down. My phone's alarm pulled me out of my nap. It was time! I started putting on the clothes I had prepared, as Naisha had advised. Everything was dark in color, modest. Navy blue, opaque tights. Flat shoes. Black summer coat and headscarf. I parked in front of the courthouse. The rooms where the punishments took place were located on the lowest floor of the building. I showed the summons and the policeman let me in and closed the metal door behind me. If I wanted to turn back - I couldn't, they wouldn't let me go now.
There were a dozen women in the waiting room. There were newspapers, but no one read. There was also no mobile signal, so the telephone could not be used either. Every now and then, the door at the end of the corridor opened and the policeman read out a name. One woman got up and the policeman showed her the door to which she was supposed to go. The door closed and the condemned woman disappeared. The exit had to be elsewhere, because no one was leaving this door any more. There weren't any screams, but I thought the rooms might be soundproofed.
***
The policewoman handed me a glass of water and asked:
"Can you get up now? Can we start now?"
"Yes, I'm better now," I stammered out in Arabic.
"Come on, what are you waiting for?" The policewoman was getting irritated.
Only now did the man look up from the papers he was examining and look at me. I thought I had no choice but to do as they told me. I started to undress, first my shoes, skirt, tights. Now I was standing on the cold stone floor. I felt cold on my feet and hot from the waist up. A weird feeling. But my thoughts were interrupted again by a firm
I decided to pull myself together. I rolled up my skirt and slipped my tights down to reveal my bottom, as Naisha had advised me. I tried to act naturally, although my hands were shaking and I was sweating more and more.
"Take everything down from the waist," the policewoman said firmly.
"This isn't enough?" I asked timidly.
"No, everything from the waist down!"
I couldn't understand why they wanted to humiliate me so. Naisha had said it was enough to expose the buttocks.
voice:
"Stand here and lean on your stomach!"
Now I leaned over and lay down on a stool while my tormentors stood for a while and watched me. I just wanted it to start, to be over with it.
I was folded in two, while my pursuers stood for a moment and watched me. I just wanted it to start, to be over with it.
"Wait a minute, don't do this, I won't be making any problems!" I said as they started tying my legs and hands to the stool. After all, Naisha said that if I promised to lie still during the flogging, they would not wont tie me down.
"After ten lashes, we always tie everyone down. These are our rules.
"Stand here and lean on your stomach!"
Now I leaned over onto a stool while my tormentors stood for a while and watched me. I just wanted it to start, to be finished with it. I was bent in two, while my pursuers stood for a moment and watched me.
"Wait a minute, don't do this, I won't be making any trouble for you!" I said, as they started tying my legs and hands to the stool. After all, Naisha had said that if I promised to lie still during the flogging, they would not tie me down.
"After ten lashes, we always tie everyone down. These are our rules."- Aaah! - I groaned.
The policeman tightened the bonds so much that it hurt a lot. So, I was immobilized and there was nothing I could do. What if I couldn't stand it? If I had known it was like this, I wouldn't have come here! I would have fled abroad!
"Here we go," the policeman announced.
The woman read my sentence. Then she took a rattan cane from the desk and stood in front of me.
"We perform the punishment using this cane."
She spoke Arabic, but I realized that the regulations required that she show it to me before hitting. The stick was not very thick but quite long. I felt that it was going to hurt ...
Then she stood behind me.
Slap! First hit... how hard! Slap! The second... oh mother, how it hurt! I felt the energy of the impact spread through my body. However, I decided not to show my weakness and gritted my teeth so as not to scream. Slap, slap, four, five.
"AAAHHH! it hurts!" I screamed involuntarily. I stopped counting; the pain was too strong. The policewoman took her time, took a big swing and probably measured the times. I don't know after which hit, but she heard my own scream. I couldn't control myself. Suddenly it was over, was it already? I felt my buttocks burning, but I felt relieved.