Two women were caned in front of an audience in a Malaysian court for trying to have sex, spurring condemnation from human rights groups and calls to abolish corporal punishment in the predominantly Muslim Southeast Asian country.

The unnamed Muslim women, ages 22 and 32, were each struck six times with the cane Monday in the Syariah High Court in the Malaysian state of Terengganu, the Star reported. The women, who had pleaded guilty to having “sexual relations between women,” were led to a stool, and two female officers took turns striking them in the back. The older woman did not wince, according to the newspaper, while the younger one sobbed.

The punishments came amid the new Malaysian government’s rising rhetoric against homosexuality and follows weeks of attacks against members of the LGBT community. In the past weeks, Mujahid Yusof Rawa, minister in the prime minister’s department, told reporters that the government under Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who was elected in May, does not recognize the LGBT community and focuses instead on helping LGBT people toward the “right path” through campaigns, seminars and camps.

About 150 people were reportedly inside the courtroom during the caning. Representatives of the Terengganu government said the punishments, which the Star newspaper described not as whipping but as a “forceful tap,” were meant to educate and not inflict pain.

Satiful Bahri Mamat, a member of the Terengganu state executive council, said the punishment was the first to be carried out in a public setting.

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