Couple caned for kissing on TikTok in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province

A young couple in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province were publicly caned on Thursday after an Islamic Shariah court convicted them of violating Islamic law by kissing during a TikTok livestream.

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — A young couple in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province were publicly caned on Thursday after an Islamic Shariah court convicted them of violating Islamic law by kissing during a TikTok livestream.

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Aceh’s Sharia court ordered the two people to be whipped with a rattan cane 21 times each for kissing without being married. At least a hundred people witnessed the caning, carried out by a group of people wearing robes and hoods on a stage in Bustanussalatin City Park in Banda Aceh.

The couple, a 22-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman, were arrested in April after a Feb. 27 livestream in which they kissed in a car in Banda Aceh went viral and prompted reports to local Sharia authorities.