Can flogging ever be just?

Can Flogging Ever Be Just?

Flogging or whipping was a punishment for slaves in the United States before the Civil War. The effect of flogging on a slave is discutable, bacause a flogged slave would not be able to work for some time. So many slave owners did not use this way of punishing unwilling slaves, but deprived them of rewards instead.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, European armies administered floggings to common soldiers who committed breaches of the military code. In the Napoleonic Wars, the maximum number of lashes that could be inflicted on soldiers in the British Army reached 1,200. This many lashes could permanently disable or kill a man.
No longer used in most Western countries, flogging or whipping is still a common punishment in some parts of the world, particularly in many former British territories and in many Islamic countries. Medically supervised caning is routinely ordered by the courts as a penalty for some categories of crime in Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and elsewhere.
The punishment for zina (fornication) for unmarried person in islam is; 
"The fornicatress and the fornicator, flog each of them with a hundred stripes. Let not pity withhold you in their case, in a punishment prescribed by Allaah" [al-Noor 24:2] 
The act must be witnessed by at least four men whose word can be trusted; a confession does away with the requirement of four witnesses. 
Note; For fornication.

Amira Osman Hamed, a 35-year-old Sudanese civil engineer and women's rights activist appeared in court on Monday charged with dressing indecently or immorally - for refusing to cover her hair with a headscarf. If she is found guilty, she could be sentenced to corporal punishment of up to 40 lashes. Following Monday's hearing, the woman remains in legal limbo while the prosecution decides if additional hearings will take place or if the case will be dismissed. 
Premarital sex, adultery, failing to prove rape, dressing 'indecently' or 'immorally', being found in the company of a man, or committing acts that are deemed incompatible with chastity - these are some of the "offences" for which women have been chastised with flogging in various parts of the world. Women like Amira must not be forced to live in fear of being flogged. Governments need to stop flogging women and girls. Governments should completely stop flogging, also of men, as it is a degrading and humiliating punishment and must be seen as torture.
  
Frances Raday, the chairperson of the UN Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice, added that it was women who were disproportionally found guilty of offences that were punishable by flogging. 
  
"Given continued discrimination and inequalities faced by women, including inferior roles attributed to them by patriarchal and traditional attitudes, and power imbalances in their relations with men, maintaining flogging as a form of punishment, even when it applies to both women and men, means in practice that women disproportionally face this cruel punishment, in violation of their human rights to dignity, privacy and equality," Ms. Raday said. 
  
Ms. Amira Osman Hamed cannot be punished by flogging and the Sudanese Government must review its legislation related to flogging. Under international human rights law, corporal punishment can amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment or even to torture, and States cannot invoke provisions of domestic law to justify violations of their human rights obligations under international law.   
  
Corporal punishment of women and girls is usually linked to control, power, limitation of their freedom of movement, freedom of association, as well as their personal and sexual choices. Punishment usually has a collective dimension, and is public in nature, as the visibility of the issue also serves a social objective, namely, influencing the conduct of other women.  Justice is never a real preocupation for people or governments who mete out this harsh punnishment.