Bastinado
Bastonade , bastinado (French bastonnade , Italian bastonata = blow with a stick , to: bastonare = to beat, to: bastone = stick) or earlier streak , in the Arabic-speaking region of Falaka , denotes a discipline or torture method , depending on the purpose and execution method , with a consequence blows to the soles of a person's bare feet .
The bastinado is often associated with Middle Eastern and Far Eastern countries, where it is mostly carried out in public using the falaka method that is common there and is recorded in eyewitness reports and photographic documents, but it still comes in different ways in many countries in the western world and way of application.
In China, the execution of the bastinado has been documented since 960, in Europe it is mentioned for the first time in 1537. The term Sohlenstreich used to be common in everyday German , cf. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (see below), which corresponds to the less frequently used term sole blows in current linguistic usage. In the colloquial German language, the bastinade was sometimes also paraphrased by the phrase (number) on the soles of the feet . In the English-speaking world, the variation of the term Bastinado is predominantly in use, at times the term booting was used, and it is sometimes also referred to as foot whipping or sole caning .
The number of successive blows given varies depending on the context and the method used in the respective culture. In Iran , 50 lashes are considered a comparatively mild punishment, many times this can be imposed on criminals. In the Ottoman Empire , the imposition of 250 blows is historically documented (for Iran and the Ottoman Empire see section Modern History ). 77 blows are mentioned in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte . During the time of National Socialism , for example, 100 to 170 strokes were reported from children's homes .
Circumstances of application
The bastinado is increasingly used where people are initially subject to the law or the factual possibility of being punished by other people and are also constantly forced to be barefoot . These circumstances can apply to the persons concerned e.g. B. be caused by personal lack of freedom in the form of captivity or slavery as well as other constellations in which there is a fixed hierarchy with a de facto power imbalance . The bastinade is still used in various countries in prisons, during police interrogations as well as in armed and political conflicts.
Prisons
In Germany, the bastinade was in use within penal institutions and prison camps until the end of the Nazi era . In France, she was used by the Sûreté state police for interrogation purposes and was used in various prisons, such as the penal colony of New Caledonia . The bastinade was also routinely used in Greek prisons, as 83% of the prisoners reported in a survey in 1967 of its use. The Hungarian and Yugoslav police used them in the 1930s, as did the Romanian police until the end of the communist Ceausescu dictatorship in 1989. In Spain, 39% of the detainees reported the use of the Guardia Civil . In Europe, it was or is still used in Cyprus, Poland, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Ukraine, Portugal, Macedonia, Slovakia and Croatia as part of the prison system. Other countries in which the bastinade was or is used are Syria , Israel , Turkey , Morocco , Iran , Egypt , Iraq , Libya , Lebanon , Tunisia , Yemen , Saudi Arabia , Kuwait , Brazil , Argentina , Nicaragua , Chile , South Africa , Rhodesia / Zimbabwe , Paraguay , Honduras , Bolivia , Ethiopia , Somalia , Kenya , Cameroon , Mauritius , Philippines , South Korea , Pakistan and Nepal .
crew
It was used by British occupiers in Palestine and Venezuela, by French occupiers in Algeria, in South Africa and by US soldiers in Vietnam. In colonial occupied India the bastinado was used in connection with tax offenses; The German Nazi regime used the bastinade in addition to the execution of sentences and camps in the occupied countries of Denmark and Norway.
Political repression
In order to intimidate the student movement in Greece, this method was used on an ongoing basis, as practically no visible traces could be found once the students concerned were released from prison.
slavery
During modern slavery in Brazil or the American southern states, the bastinado was used in particular where a so-called "clean beating" should be used. In the case of women held in slavery, a "decrease in value" should be avoided in this context, which could possibly occur as a result of skin injuries from the usual flogging. Since, according to the official slave laws, they were forced to be barefoot anyway, the bastinade was an obvious punishment. In the slave law of "Cape Town" there is e.g. For example, the phrase "Slaves must go barefoot and must carry passes (slaves must go barefoot and carry ID documents with them)". Thus, the bastinade was often evasively used to punish younger women with a higher sales value, especially since this method proved to be very effective, but usually no serious injuries remained and the “commercial value” was not temporarily reduced as a result.
execution
The bastinado is performed with a suitable percussion instrument on the soles of the bare feet of the person concerned. The blows usually take place in the area of the soft arch of the foot between the heel and ball of the foot . Usually a whip or cane , but also flexible objects such as straps, cables or rods are used.
According to the Middle Eastern method (tr: Falaka ), their ankles are tied to a beam and lifted up with it, the blows are usually performed with a wooden stick. Amnesty International's report File on Torture (in Turkey) of September 1987 shows this method, which is most frequently used there, and describes the fact that it only takes a chair and rope to fix the feet in one position. In other regions, however, there were and are different ways of tying up the person concerned for the bastinado and performing the chastisement.
The person to be beaten was and is fundamentally restricted in their physical freedom of movement in all regionally different manifestations, at least to the extent that they are not able to move their feet or move the body in anticipation of the impact or in the pain reflex . This is primarily intended to ensure the effectiveness of the punishment and to avoid more serious injuries to the person concerned, which can occur when the feet are moved independently of the percussion instrument due to the failure of the blows to hit.
Effects
The bastinade triggers a particularly intense pain perception , as the underside of the human foot has a very high pain sensitivity due to the high density of nerve cells . The painful stimulus perceived by the person concerned when using a cane, whip or other flexible instruments of small diameter is mostly described as cutting, stabbing or biting, and often afterwards as burning. The pain that is triggered is not limited to the point of impact on the arch of the foot , but radiates subliminally into the entire body. This effect arises because the tibial nerve , which runs alongside the sole of the foot and is directly affected by the impact in the arch of the foot, transmits the stimulus directly to the central sciatic nerve , which from there reflexively radiates into the other body regions. In contrast to other parts of the body, the pain sensitivity of the soles of the feet does not gradually decrease during repetitive impacts, such as blows. Due to the functional peculiarity of the sole of the foot (as well as the palm) as the primary organ of touch, neither a feeling of numbness nor habituation occurs. The subjective pain perception rather increases gradually with an increasing number of blows through increasing activation of the nociceptors up to their maximum stimulation. After a number of previous impacts, even a moderate touch stimulus, which would normally be perceived below the pain threshold , can be intensified by the increased activity of the nociceptors to such an extent that it triggers a subjective pain sensation. With the same intensity of the impact from the percussion instrument, the pain felt by the person concerned therefore increases steadily to a certain extent. The pain sensations perceived during the bastinade can, however, be rated as different in intensity depending on the subjective pain tolerance, which varies from case to case, and its possible further shift due to feelings of fear and powerlessness .
When the bastinade is performed in the manner described above, the totality of the physical effects is usually of a temporary nature; the foot bones as well as the supporting and musculoskeletal system are not damaged. The metatarsal bones below the soft arch of the foot are adequately protected by the short foot muscles (toe flexors) running above them ; the force of a percussion instrument described above is usually completely absorbed by the skin and foot muscles without affecting the foot bones. Haematomas or open injuries to the skin occur extremely rarely, even with higher intensity of the impact, because the dermis of the soles of the feet, like that of the palms, is particularly tear-resistant due to its high strength and elasticity and the upper skin (epidermis) is also much higher Strength than other skin regions. Thus, despite the triggering of high pain stimuli, the person concerned usually does not experience any injuries requiring medical care. Externally visible after-effects in the form of reddening of the subcutis usually subside a few hours after the application, mostly or completely, and the after-effects pain stimuli also decrease during this time. One such method subjected person can usually also briefly normal as possible after the execution despite continued acting pain stimuli move . Because of these modes of action and the comparatively little effort required to achieve them, the bastinado continues to be used in various countries in different contexts (see above).
If, in contrast to the method described above, the bastinade is performed using rigid and solid percussion instruments in the areas of the toes, ball of the foot or heel, as is sometimes practiced in the Middle Eastern Falaka method, serious injuries such as Bone fractures and nerve damage as well as an often permanent impairment of the motor function remain. This result, which is often deliberately brought about or accepted with approval, is classified under the concept of corporal punishment due to its permanently damaging mode of action . Immediately after suffering a falaka in the latter way, the person concerned is mostly not able to stand or walk without assistance.
Modern history
Both before and after the military coup in Turkey in 1980 , the bastonade was one of the classic torture methods . In women’s prisons in present-day Iran, prisoners are regularly punished with the bastinado and interrogated when it is used. In India, inmates in women's prisons are also punished by beating on the soles of their feet. In Syria, too, the bastinade is a common punishment in prisons there. The bastinade is also used regularly in the Libya conflict (report in the Berliner Zeitung of September 14, 2011). In concentration camps of the Nazi regime , the bastinade represented an everyday form of punishment for prisoners of both sexes. Even in children's homes during this time, regular punishment by beating on the soles of the feet is reported. The use of the bastonade in children's homes up to the 1960s is reported from Austria . In the US state of Massachusetts, the bastinade is documented in the penitentiary system until 1969. In Iran , before the constitutional revolution of 1905, around 50 blows with a stick on the soles of the feet were considered a comparatively mild punishment and 1,000 a cruel punishment. Helmuth von Moltke reported in a letter dated September 27, 1836 from the Ottoman Empire as an eyewitness about a penalty of 500 blows, 250 per foot, which the Sultan reduced to 50 at his request.
Literature and art
In the fourth volume of Heinrich Graetz's work on the history of the Jews, he reports on the use of the bastonade in Damascus .
In the opera Die Zauberflöte the bastinade is mentioned in the 22nd scene “Only seventy-seven soles”. The number of pranks was varied in other languages to suit the musical beat. The English translation speaks of forty lashes.
The bastinade is also used by Karl May in literary description, both in his Mahdi trilogy and in the Orient cycle .
In cinematic works, the bastinade is usually shown in the context of imprisonment in the visualization of politically motivated torture or punishment. Relevant implementations can be found u. a. in the game or television films " 12 at night - Midnight Express (Midnight Express)" , " Revolution " , "Bless you, prison" , " The Handmaid's Tale (The Handmaid's Tale)" , "The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler " , " Eleni " and " Autumn Born " .
In Middle Eastern television formats, the bastinado is often presented in different contexts, here mostly in the "falaka" method that is common within this cultural area (see above). The application of the bastinado is shown almost entirely on female people. Corresponding implementations can be found u. a. in the TV series “ Muhteşem Yüzyıl ” (historical punishment of female servants, Turkey), “Childen Of Streets” (punishment of female prisoners, Egypt), “Bu kalp seni unutur mu?” (political torture of an activist, Turkey) and “El Shahroura” (domestic violence against the wife, Lebanon).
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015064334355;view=1up;seq=30
- ↑ http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc2.ark:/13960/t74t6pm1b;view=1up;seq=15
- ↑ Compare the entry at duden.de under Bastonade ; Accessed December 19, 2012
- ↑ a b c cf. Torture and Democracy by Darius Rejali. P. 274.
- ↑ a b kurier.at [Wimmersdorf: 270 blows on the soles of the feet] . Retrieved February 19, 2014.
- ↑ a b c cf. Torture and Democracy by Darius Rejali. P. 275.
- ↑ a b See Torture and Democracy by Darius Rejali. P. 276f.
- ^ Cape Town and Surrounds. . Western Cape Government . Retrieved July 14, 2013.
- ↑ See Torture and Democracy by Darius Rejali. P. 277.
- ↑ See u. a. the Pain and Anxiety page in “Praxisklinik Dr. med. Thomas Weiss “on intensifying pain through fear; Accessed September 23, 2013.
- ↑ See u. a. the page dermis in "MedizInfo" on the dermis; Accessed June 16, 2013
- ↑ DER SPIEGEL 38/1984 [We will be executed] . Retrieved February 22, 2014.
- ^ Deutsche Welle [Behind the Walls of Evin] . Retrieved February 22, 2014.
- ↑ Frankfurter Allgemeine, Politik [I only know the voices] . Retrieved February 23, 2014.
- ↑ Human Rights Watch ISBN 0-929692-92-6, p 16 [Prison Conditions in India] . Retrieved February 23, 2014.
- ↑ www.tagesspiegel.de [Trapped in Syria: Beatings on the soles of the feet] . Retrieved February 19, 2014.
- ↑ www.berliner-zeitung.de [blows on the bare soles of the feet] . Retrieved February 19, 2014.
- ↑ Cf. Ruxandra Cesereanu: An Overview of Political Torture in the Twentieth Century . P. 124f.
- ↑ See a report at "krone.at" from March 29, 2012 reports on torture in the children's home on the Hohe Warte ; Accessed December 19, 2012
- ↑ Excerpts from it are on the Internet under Chapter 11. The year 1840 and the Damascus blood charge. (1840.) to see; Accessed December 19, 2012
- ↑ See u. a. the side of Mozart's Magic Flute .: A critical discussion of its interpretation. by Jules Speller; Accessed March 20, 2013
- ↑ See u. a. the Father of the Five Hundred page in the Karl May Wiki; Accessed December 19, 2012