In the wake of the public caning of two women for a sex offence by the Terengganu Syariah High Court, a photographer is offering free photoshoots for LGBT couples.

According to Jasper Woon, his 'Free photoshoot for 10 LGBT couples' project was initiated as a protest to the "injustice" of the incident.

The 28-year-old Woon, who started his company JW Photography five years ago, told Malaysiakini that his job is about celebrating love.

He said that he was left enraged when reading about the public caning.

"Our daily job is documenting and expressing the love stories of couples. When I saw the news online, I was angry and I felt a sense of injustice.

"Although I'm not a member of the LGBT community, I feel empathetic towards them, so I became angry," he said.

Woon then decided on the free photoshoot project as a form of protest, and as a show of solidarity for oppressed sexual minorities.

"Love is something that is very important in this world. When I see that LGBT people cannot express their love freely, and even have to face the discrimination and humiliation, it felt unfair."

'This is not OK'

Although his JW Photography team members initially suggested obscuring the fact that the project was in response to the caning, Woon insisted that the message of "This is not OK" should be made loud and clear to authorities. 

"This project is not about 'promoting' the LGBT lifestyle... Instead, we are protesting the social injustice," he told Malaysiakini. 

"Why do these people have no rights to love someone, and they have to endure this kind of humiliation?"

Since his project began, Woon said, his inbox has been flooded with supportive messages from LGBT couples and heterosexual allies.

Among these were a number of hateful messages as well, but he remains unperturbed by these.

'A romantic'

As JW Photography intends on the results of the project to be made public, Woon said that 10 LGBT couples who are willing to disclose their sexual identities will be selected for the photoshoot.

Woon (photo), who hails from Ipoh, describes himself as a “romantic," and believes that all kinds of love should be celebrated, regardless of any individual's sexual orientation.

He also hopes that the project will make sexual minorities see that some straight allies stand in solidarity with them.

"Love is something that brings no harm to the world, that's why love is the most celebrated thing.

"They (LGBT couples) are simply loving each other, they didn't cause any hurt or damage to anyone. They can choose who to love, and it is their own business."

The public caning in Terengganu on Sept 3 drew criticism from various quarters, including politicians and rights groups, which deemed flogging as a "cruel and degrading" form of torture.

However, the Terengganu state government defended the act, and said it was meant to educate the public, not hurt the women.

The women, aged 22 and 32, were caught by Islamic law enforcement officers in April for attempting to have sex in a car.

They were fined RM3,300 each by the Syariah Court and sentenced to six strokes of the cane after pleading guilty.