BAGHDAD: Thousands of women are being illegally held in Iraqi prisons, where they suffer torture and other forms of abuse, including sexual assault, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.
The allegations, detailed in a report based on the testimony of female detainees, their relatives and lawyers, prison medics, court documents and meetings with officials, lend credence to one of the central claims made by disaffected Sunni Arabs frustrated with the Shia-led government.
The minority community says it is unfairly targeted by the authorities and security forces, and points in particular to the treatment of women in prisons, with the issue dominating long-running protests in Iraq’s Sunni-dominated areas.
HRW said that women in Iraqi prisons — the vast majority of whom are Sunni — have reported being beaten, kicked, and slapped, given electric shocks, and raped, while others have been threatened with sexual assault, sometimes in front of male relatives.
The women were often arrested either to question their male relatives’ alleged support for militants, rather than crimes they themselves were believed to have committed, or to harass male family members or the community more generally.
HRW also said Iraq’s judiciary does not do enough to investigate claims of torture or abuse.
AFP
