A Malaysian religious court on Tuesday postponed a caning sentence on two women convicted for having sex, media reports said, amid an outcry from human rights activists. The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community is routinely persecuted in Muslim-majority Malaysia, where sodomy is a crime and is seen as a threat to conservative values. The women had pleaded guilty to charges under Islamic laws forbidding lesbian sex. They were sentenced to a fine and six strokes of the cane, with the punishment to be carried out on Aug. 28. The case had sparked an outcry with civil rights groups decrying the caning as torture. The Shariah High Court in Terengganu, however, postponed the punishment to Sept. 3 due to “technical reasons”, media said.