Here's an article a DU'er posted recently which will relate the conditions of Iraqii women in several of our prisons, including Abu Ghraib:
....there remain extremely troubling questions as to why these women came to be here. Like other Iraqi prisoners, all five are classified as "security detainees" - a term invented by the Bush administration to justify the indefinite detention of prisoners without charge or legal access, as part of the war on terror. US military officials will only say that they are suspected of "anti-coalition activities".
Two of the women are the wives of high-ranking and absconding Ba'ath party members; two are accused of financing the resistance; and one allegedly had a relationship with the former head of Iraq's secret police, the Mukhabarat. The women, in their 40s and 50s, come from Kirkuk and Baghdad; none has seen their families or children since their arrest earlier this year.
According to Swadi, who managed to visit Abu Ghraib in late March, the allegations against the women are "absurd". "One of them is supposed to be the mistress of the former director of the Mukhabarat. In fact, she's a widow who used to own a small shop. She also worked as a taxi driver, ferrying children to and from kindergarten. If she really had a relationship with the director of the Mukhabarat, she would scarcely be running a kiosk. These are baseless charges," she adds angrily. "She is the only person who can provide for her children."
The women appear to have been arrested in violation of international law - not because of anything they have done, but merely because of who they are married to, and their potential intelligence value. US officials have previously acknowledged detaining Iraqi women in the hope of convincing male relatives to provide information; when US soldiers raid a house and fail to find a male suspect, they will frequently take away his wife or daughter instead.
(snip)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/women/story/0,3604,1220673,00.html~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ON edit:
Just found a great article by Sidney Blumenthal, which brings info. you may not have read yet. By the way, did you know it was that pompous, swaggering religious idiot Gen.Boykin who advocated using gas at Waco? (Janet Reno bore the brunt of that one.) I had no idea he was there. He has been involved in "gitmo-izing" Abu Ghraib:
Opinion: The religious warrior of Abu Ghraib (20 May 04)
An evangelical US general played a pivotal role in Iraqi prison reform.
SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL
http://radiofreeusa.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2941