Mixed emotions over this one.

[leo-rcc]

A Pakistani court has ordered that two men have their ears and noses cut off, as punishment for doing the same to a woman who refused to marry one of them.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8425820.stm

On the one hand I am really glad they are addressing the problem, but on the other hand it seems to me to be a very brutal medieval punishment.

[theVOID]

You expect more from islam?

[leo-rcc]

Yes I do.

[Edwardo Piet]

Eye for an eye or what. Absolutely barbaric.

EvF

[fr0d0]

Seems very 'unenlightened' - Asia promotes itself as spiritually superior and repeatedly acts in a primitive manner.

[Meatball]

I have no mixed emotions over this.

No government should be able to mutilate it's citizens in such a way.

[LEDO]

No mixed feelings here. I bet those bastards won't do it again.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

On the one hand I am really glad they are addressing the problem, but on the other hand it seems to me to be a very brutal medieval punishment.

IF it were MY sister, I'd be applauding. The desire for revenge may not be just, but it's very human.? The notion of 'any eye for an eye' is about compensation, not revenge. The Jews may have pinched it from the Sumerians as they did a lot of other stuff.

Why is that we're appalled by behaviour which was common European practice for centuries? Pakistan does not have a monopoly on barbarity;The US had Guantanamo bay,rendition,torture and Abu Ghraid,and of course many states still have capital punishment.Texas even executes mentally impaired people.(simple;they changed the definition of 'mentally impaired') Singapore still orders miscreants beaten with a thick cane.--as an American teenage boy discovered a few years ago for the dastardly crime of vandalism. He was also fined and deported.

Many Asian countries execute drug smugglers. The PRC has a long list of capital crimes,including some forms of theft and corruption. When I was last in China a man was executed for having run a bicycle stealing ring. I kid you not.

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Examples of the Code Hammurabi

* If anyone ensnares another, putting a ban upon him, but he can not prove it, then he that ensnared him shall be put to death.

* If anyone brings an accusation against a man, and the accused goes to the river and leaps into the river, if he sinks in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river proves that the accused is not guilty, and he escapes unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser.

* If anyone brings an accusation of any crime before the elders, and does not prove what he has charged, he shall, if a capital offense is charged, be put to death.

* If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then the builder shall be put to death.(Another variant of this is, If the owner's son dies, then the builder's son shall be put to death.)

* If a son slaps his father, his hand shall be cut off.

* If a man give his child to a nurse and the child dies in her hands, but the nurse unbeknown to the father and mother nurses another child, then they shall convict her of having nursed another child without the knowledge of the father and mother and her breasts shall be cut off.

* If anyone steals the minor son of another, he shall be put to death.

* If a man takes a woman to wife, but has no intercourse with her, this woman is no wife to him.

* If a man strikes a pregnant woman, thereby causing her to miscarry and die, the assailant's daughter shall be put to death.

* If a man puts out the eye of an equal, his eye shall be put out.

* If a man knocks the teeth out of another man, his own teeth will be knocked out.

* If anyone strikes the body of a man higher in rank than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public.

* If a freeborn man strikes the body of another freeborn man of equal rank, he shall pay one gold mina [an amount of money].

* If the slave of a freed man strikes the body of a freed man, his ear shall be cut off.

* If anyone commits a robbery and is caught, he shall be put to death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi

[Rhizomorph13]

[quote='padraic' pid='46581' dateline='1261520562']
Singapore still orders miscreants beaten with a thick cane.[/quote}

...coated in horsehair so it will leave more scars. It is also wielded by a martial arts master to make sure the strikes are as hard and acurate as possible! If only that American punk had known about the punishment, he might not have been so keen on vandalism. I agree with punishment but only to an extent that does NOT deform the participant. There is an economic benefit to imprisonment; we can use them for labor (and do) without paying them a fair wage.

Wait why is pot still illegal? Oh yeah slaves are illegal but imprisoning people is not... (Pay no attention to this statement or it might derail the thread )

Rhizo

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

If only that American punk had known about the punishment, he might not have been so keen on vandalism

Possible but unlikely. The deterrent argument is not supported by evidence as a principle. Most teens are not capable of assessing the long term effects of their actions. Even had he been aware,it's unlikely he would connect the punishment with his own behaviour.

I did not mean to imply I support brutal legal action of any kind. That I might desire and seek revenge does not make that desire moral.