Wanita MCA has flayed Kelantan PAS Dewan Ulama for calling for public lashing as punishment for the Islamic offence of illicit sex, or zina .

“We totally disagree with the PAS ulama's suggestion to publicly cane Muslims caught for committing the offence of illicit sex, and their blaming the high divorce rate on working women.

“The public flogging form of punishment not only contravenes human rights but contradicts our federal constitution and existing laws.

“The spirit of the law is not to humiliate the offenders, but to educate them to learn of their mistakes, be responsible for their own deeds, and to repent,” said Wanita MCA chief Heng Seai Kie in a statement.

“Non-Muslims must also be wary that the PAS ulama might be maliciously trying to quietly expand the jurisdiction border of the syariah criminal codes,” she added, condemning the Islamic party’s continued push for hudud.

‘Insult to women’

She was responding to a Sin Chew Daily report yesterday on minutes of the ulama wing’s meeting, in which the ulama had also blamed the high divorce rate on working women.

“The minutes of the PAS Dewan Ulama meeting is nothing more than fairytales.

“The conclusion they arrived at indicates that they are approaching 21st century issues from the ultra-conservative, Middle Age perspective.

Heng said PAS’ ulama needed to be “enlightened” on the many reasons for failed marriages and should instead encourage women to join the workforce

“As such, to hold working women solely responsible for divorces is utterly unfair,” she said.

She also questioned PAS’ timing in making such statements in an age of gender equality, which she said “arouses suspicion that it had intentionally insulted the fairer sex”.