International Business Times, April 29, 2016 – The clerical regime in Iran has sentenced a woman to 100 lashes in public, according to reports. The punishment was meted out to the woman known only as ST, on 27 April, in Golpayegan, Isfahan Province, reports Serat News. The woman is also sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Farideh Karimi, a human rights activist and member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), strongly condemned the public flogging of the woman in Golpayegan.

“The public flogging of a woman in Iran is a new misogynist measure by the Rouhani government, which is extremely disturbing and abhorrent. The women politicians from the West who visit Iran should reconsider such outreaches and their impact in emboldening the regime in its attitude,” she said.

She added: “In view of the new wave of suppression of women in Iran, we urge women’s rights activists and organizations to stand up and speak out against the mullahs’ misogynist policies.”

It is rare for state media to report on women being sentenced to flogging, although instances are believed to have gone unreported. The woman’s punishment follows an annual report on Iran by Amnesty International, which drew attention to ’punishments that violate the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment’.

It stated: “These were sometimes carried out in public and included flogging, blinding and amputations.”