English: Consensual premarital sex (fornication) and sex outside marriage (adultery) is a crime in Sharia, deserving capital punishment in some cases. Many Muslim nations have legal codes (customary or criminal laws) against such consensual sex, where it is considered a religious crime against god (zina), and these can be tried by sharia courts.

Public lashing of unmarried Muslims, and lethal stoning of married Muslims is the historic, religiously required punishment. While these laws and punishments exist on their law books, these punishments are not used in many Muslim majority countries (prison and other punishments are more common). In some Islamic nations such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan where it is used - the use of public lashing or lethal stoning is inconsistent. In some cases, these punishments have been enforced by the local Muslim community, village elders or family members (as honor killing) without the sanction of the nation's court system.

Data Source:

1. Ziba Mir-Hosseini (2011), Criminalizing sexuality: zina laws as violence against women in Muslim contexts, SUR - Int'l Journal on Human Rights, 15, pp. 7-31;

2. R Imran (2013), The Zina Hudood Ordinance of Pakistan and Its Implications for Women, Journal of International Women's Studies, 7(2), 78-100;

3. MH Kamali (1998), Punishment in Islamic law: A critique of the hudud bill of Kelantan, Malaysia. Arab Law Quarterly, 13(3), 203-234.;

4. Haideh Moghissi (2005), Women and Islam: Part 4 Women, sexuality and sexual politics in Islamic cultures, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 0-415-32420-3;

5. Special report: The punishment was death by stoning The Independent, 29 September 2013;

6. Ziba Mir-Hosseini and Vanja Hamzic (2010) Control and Sexuality - The Revival of Zina Laws in Muslim Contexts ISBN 978-1-907024-08-5