Foot whipping

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Foot whipping, variously known as bastinado, falanga (phalanga), and falaka (falaqa), is a form of torture wherein the human feet are beaten with an object such as a cane or rod, a club, a piece of wood, or a whip. It is a form of punishment often favoured because, although extremely painful, it leaves few physical marks, though evidence can be detected via ultrasound technology.

The prisoner may be immobilized before application of the beating by tying, securing the feet in stocks, locking the legs into an elevated position, or hanging upside-down. The Persian term falaka referred to a wooden plank which was used to secure the feet prior to beating.

Foot whipping is effective due to the clustering of nerve endings in the feet and the structure of the foot, with its numerous small bones and tendons. The wounds inflicted are particularly painful and take a long time to heal, rendering it a redoubtable deterrent but impractical as punishment for subordinates. Some point out that the prominent display of the offender's bare feet contains an element of punitive humiliation as well. This is especially true in Arabic cultures, where it is considered humiliating to bare the soles of one's feet.

This punishment has, at various times, been used in China, as well as the Middle East. It was used throughout the Ottoman Empire (including the Balkans).^{[citation needed]} Foot whipping had been, until recently, utilized as a form of corporal punishment in schools in the Middle East.[1] It was convenient in that it could be employed on both male and female students in lieu of other forms of punishment considered inappropriate for female students (such as caning of the buttocks). Foot whipping employed on students was not as harsh as the kind employed on adults, in that only a long ruler was used to firmly slap the soles of the feet, delivering a less agonising blow but sufficient to cause pain.

1 Foot whipping in history
2 Foot whipping in modern times
3 Foot whipping in popular culture
4 References

[edit] Foot whipping in history

Foot whipping was used at the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh during the rule of the Khmer Rouge and is mentioned in the ten regulations to prisoners now on display in the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.
Bahá'u'lláh (founder of the Bahá'í Faith) underwent foot whipping in August 1852 as a follower of the Babi religion. (Esslemont, 1937)
Foot whipping was used by Fascist Blackshirts against Freemasons critical of Mussolini as early as 1923. (Dalzell, 1961)
It was used as a method of torture during the Regime of the Colonels in Greece, from 1967-1974 (source: "The Method" by Pericles Korovessis).
The same practice had also been used in prisons in the United States until the early 20th century ([2]).

[edit] Foot whipping in modern times

The late Uday Hussein, a leader of Iraq's Ba'ath Party regime and son of Saddam Hussein, is alleged to have used this method of torture on Iraq Olympic athletes who did not perform according to standards.[3]
Foot whipping was a commonly reported torture method used by the security officers of Bahrain on its citizens between 1974 and 2001^[1]. See: Torture in Bahrain.
Foot whipping is known to be used in Saudi Arabia as a method of punishment and of torture. See William Sampson
Falanga is allegedly used by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) against persons suspected of involvement with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). See "An Analysis of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Legal Cases, 1998-2006," [4].
It exists, alongside other BDSM whipping practices, as a rare fetish/paraphilia

[edit] Foot whipping in popular culture

In act V, scene I of the Shakespearean comedy As You Like It, Touchstone threatens William with the line: "I will deal in poison with thee, or in bastinado, or in steel..."
In act I, scene X of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera, Die Entführung aus dem Serail ("The Abduction from the Seraglio"), Osmin threatens Belmonte and Pedrillo with bastinado: "Sonst soll die Bastonade Euch gleich zu Diensten steh'n."
In act I, scene XIX of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, Sarastro orders Monostatos to be punished with 77 blows on the soles of his feet: "He! gebt dem Ehrenmann sogleich/nur sieben und siebenzig Sohlenstreich'."
Foot whipping scenes were included in the 1978 film Midnight Express.
Foot whipping is a form of punishment for women in Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale.
In The Godfather, Don Corleone's son Sonny has three men "thoroughly bastinadoed" by his bodyguards.
In the 1994 film Quiz Show, Charles van Doren - imagining what tortures the Senate hearing might hold - suggests foot whipping, along with the rack and the iron maiden.
In the Criminal Minds episode "Revelations," Dr. Spencer Reid has the sole of his foot beaten as a form of punishment for perceived sins.
In the TV series Bones, Dr Brennan notes that Agent Booth had been subjected to beatings on the bottom of his feet as a prisoner of war.