That is terrible, absolute madness and barbaric as you say.

My brother is also left handed and was not let to learn to write with his left hand, but he certainly wasn't beaten. His handwriting is terrible, I don't know if it's due to his left hand orientation or not, but it doesn't matter anymore.

Utterly barbaric, and yet some societies still refuse to acknowledge that left-handedness is valid (usually for hygiene reasons).

I'm not really familiar with this but I suspect it happens in Islamic countries? I've heard they eat with their right hand and use their left hand for hygiene purposes? Is that the reason?