This 2011 file photo shows a Sharia law official whipping a man during a public caning in Jantho, Aceh province, Indonesia. Photo: Heri Juanda, AP (File)

This 2011 file photo shows a Sharia law official whipping a man during a public caning in Jantho, Aceh province, Indonesia. Photo: Heri Juanda, AP (File)

Two Malaysian women have been sentenced to six lashes each with a cane for “attempted sexual relations.”

Police arrested the unnamed women and charged them with attempting to have sex in a car, noting the women felt “safer” having sex with women rather than men.

Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country, is notoriously anti-LGBTQ, but has recently stepped up efforts to persecute the community.

Last week, Religious Affairs Minister Mujahid Yusof Rawa recently ordered the portraits of two LGBT activists removed from an exhibition. Deputy Health Minister Dr Lee Boon Chye told a member of Parliament this week that LGBT aren’t mentally ill, there is something physically wrong with their brains. (There isn’t.)

According to the Malay Mail, the minister said, “If you look at magnetic resonance imaging scans of the human brain, you can see certain physical differences in the brain that causes them to behave as such.”

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Mahfuz Omar told reporters that transgender people need help returning to their “original identities” because they cause chaos in society.