Were women in Iraq better off under Hussein? Iraqi women held illegally and tortured

[cali]

says rights body

Iraqi authorities are detaining thousands of women illegally and subjecting many to torture and ill-treatment, including the threat of sexual abuse, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report published today.

Many women were detained for months or even years without charge before seeing a judge, HRW said.

The report, entitled ‘No One Is Safe: Abuses of Women in Iraq’s Criminal Justice System,’ found that security forces often questioned women about their male relatives’ activities rather than crimes in which they themselves were implicated, the report said.

In custody, women described being kicked, slapped, hung upside-down and beaten on the soles of their feet, given electric shocks, threatened with sexual assault by security forces during interrogation, and even raped in front of their relatives and children.

<snip>

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/iraqi-women-held-illegally-and-tortured-says-rights-body-1.1682140

they sure as hell weren't worse off.

Who benefited from the Iraq War: 3 guesses and the first 2....

[CJCRANE]

1. I never bought Bushco's claim to be spreading "liberal democracy" abroad

because they hated liberal democracy at home and did everything they could to stifle it.

The only thing they ever spread at home and abroad was religious fundamentalism.

[DreamGypsy]

2. The full report (pdf) is available...

here: No One Is Safe: Abuses of Women in Iraq’s Criminal Justice System (pdf, 111 pages, 526KB).

I haven't read the whole document, but what I have read is very disturbing and reinforces the statements captured in the Irish Times article.

Lest we be too smug, however, the report certainly does NOT excuse the United States from permitting, and perhaps encouraging, the continued legal and human abuses and injustices that historically have plagued Iraq's criminal justice system.

From the report, I. Background - Iraq’s History of Endemic Torture, (pg 17 of the pdf):

The legacy of abuse inherited from Saddam Hussein’s rule—torture, the death penalty, and extrajudicial executions—lives on in the criminal justice system of Iraq today.

In 2004, Human Rights Watch, in its first comprehensive report on human rights conditions after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government, found that Iraqi authorities continued to routinely arrest suspects arbitrarily, hold them in prolonged pretrial detention without judicial review, subject them to torture, and detain them in “abysmal conditions in pretrial detention facilities.” Courts still accepted coerced confessions as evidence and authorities failed to investigate and punish officials responsible for violations.

After 2003, US-led Coalition Forces transferred thousands of Iraqi detainees to Iraqi custody despite knowing that they faced a clear risk of torture. Leaked military cables indicate that US commanders frequently failed to follow up on credible evidence that Iraqi forces killed, tortured, and mistreated their captives. According to the documents, US authorities investigated some abuse cases, but much of the time they either ignored the abuse or asked Iraqis to investigate and closed the file.

International police advisers, primarily from the US, “turned a blind eye to these rampant abuses.” In some cases, Coalition Forces themselves committed abuses against prisoners, including female prisoners. Women that US forces detained in Abu Ghraib prison in 2004 said US soldiers beat and humiliated them and threatened them with rape, and held them in prolonged solitary confinement.

In fact, if you make a few minor edits to the 2nd excerpted paragraph above, you get -

Authorities continue to hold suspects arbitrarily in prolonged pretrial detention without judicial review, subject them to torture, and detain them in “abysmal conditions in pretrial detention facilities.” Courts still accept coerced confessions as evidence and authorities failed to investigate and punish officials responsible for violations.

- which could be mistaken for a description of the little Caribbean hideaway that the U.S. opened in 2002 and is apparently unwilling to close. Fortunately though, at least for public knowledge, there are no female guests there.

[badtoworse]

3. I lived in Iraq for about a year in the late 70's

The Iraqi people were terrified by Hussein. Maybe they were better then, but I find that hard to imagine.

[JI7]

5. of course they were scared , i don't think the issue is whether saddam was something good

people ,especially women are scared of islamic fundies also.

[badtoworse]

6. Can't say as I blame them

[JI7]

4. only because saddam kept the islamic fundies down

so women were able to gain a bit more in terms of power. but there were still issues with women being raped by saddam's people including his sons .

same thing as egypt . hopefully something better will come for these people. but right now they are stuck between military dictators and islamic fundies.