17-year-old girl flogged for adultery in Pakistan; court hearing ordered

Direct from Afghanistan, some adherents of the religion of peace were cell-phone recorded flogging a reportedly 17-year-old girl for adultery. The incident occurred some 6 weeks ago, even before sharia law was officially permitted through recent negotiations with militants in the Swat region. I lost count at 15 blows (if you've ever been flogged with an actual, for-real flogger, you may find the video hard to watch; the blows only look sort of light):



From the Timesonline article:

[S]some residents of Matta have accused the commander of ordering the beating to get revenge after the girl refused to accept his proposal of marriage, the reporters told The Times.

“Please! Enough! Enough!” the girl is heard crying in Pashtu[. . . .] At another point, she cries: “I am repenting, my father is repenting what I have done, my grandmother is repenting what I have done...”

The man flogging her is also heard abusing his colleague as he struggles to hold her down and stop her covering her backside with her hands.

“You should hold her tightly so she doesn’t move,” he is heard saying.

It's reported that the man holding the girl down is her brother.

This is what happens when you return the Taliban to legitimacy, folks. The chief justice of Pakistan's supreme court has ordered a hearing -- that is, he's ordered the girl to come in and explain what happened. As the BBC further reports:

After the incident, the Taleban forced the couple to marry and instructed the man not to divorce his wife. His relatives say he has been left mentally scarred.

How terrible for him. But hey, could be worse. Before they were allowed to have sharia courts, the Taliban "[p]reviously . . . had beheaded dissidents and killed women accused of un-Islamic behaviour." I guess the girl is just lucky she wasn't stoned.