Rights activists fear abuse of Iraqi women prisoners

Since the images of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison first appeared, several Iraqi men have spoken out about their ordeals at US-run detention centres. Women, however, have been silent.

Rumours of rape – and even of prisoners becoming pregnant – are widespread, although no case has been substantiated, human rights activists say.

On Wednesday, members of the US Congress said some of the photos and videos of Iraqi prisoners being abused included images of Iraqi women ordered to expose their breasts.

Even rights activists who believe there may have been cases of female prisoners being sexually assaulted say women would be unlikely to talk – even confidentially – about such things.

“I have been unable to meet with any woman,” said Bushra al-Obaidi, a lawyer with Iraq’s Ministry of Human Rights. “They are reluctant to come forward, but I have heard there are a lot of women who were sexually abused. I have heard that some of them even became pregnant.”

It is not clear how many women have spent time in Iraqi jails since the occupation began or how many are still being held in detention centres around Iraq.

Al-Obaidi said that although her ministry is allowed to have two permanent staff at Abu Ghraib, neither of them visit the women’s ward because they are men. She said US officials in charge of the prison have refused to let her visit female prisoners.

Al-Obaidi said she had been unable to get the names of women who have been freed.

She said that if she did find a former female prisoner who had been abused, she would try to persuade the woman to file a complaint. “We can also provide any assistance, medical or psychological, that they may need,” she said.

Others are sceptical about the reports of sexual assaults.

Malek Dohan al-Hassan, head of the Lawyers Syndicate in Baghdad, said he heard of the rumours long before the abuse scandal broke late last month and sent two of his lawyers to investigate the treatment of women prisoners.

He said the two lawyers met with six of the 10 female prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison on March 27. “They reported that the conditions were good and transparent,” Dohan said.