Thousands of women are being illegally detained by Iraq authorities, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.
Many are being subjected to torture, the threat of sexual abuse and other ill-treatment despite promises of reform, the Associated Press reported.
The findings by the New York-based rights group raise new concerns about Iraq's ability to handle those detained in massive security sweeps targeting militants amid an escalation in violence.
Accusing the Iraqi judicial system of being plagued with corruption and falling short of international standards, international rights groups are worried about the system, the AP reported.
Women have been held for months or even years without charge before seeing a judge, Human Rights Watch said. Male family members were responsible for rounding up the women for alleged terrorist activities.
According to the AP, interviewed detainees described being kicked, slapped, raped or threatened with sexual assault by security forces.
"Iraqi security forces and officials act as if brutally abusing women will make the country safer," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "In fact, these women and their relatives have told us that as long as security forces abuse people with impunity, we can only expect security conditions to worsen."
Militants have frequently cited the mistreatment of women as a justification for their attacks, the AP reported.
The group also called on the Iraqis to acknowledge the prevalence of abuse, promptly investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment and to urgently make judicial and security sector reforms.
Dismissing reports of abuse of women in detention as exceptional cases, government and judicial officials did not return phone calls seeking further comment on the report, according to the AP.
"One detainee entered her interview with the group in Iraq's death row facility in Baghdad's Kazmiyah prison on crutches, saying nine days of beatings, shocks, and being hung upside down had left her permanently disabled," the AP reported. "The woman said she had been arrested by U.S. and Iraqi forces in January 2010 when she was in her cousin's home. She said she was taken to the Interior Ministry's Criminal Investigations Department where she was tortured until she confessed to terrorism charges against her will."
Iraqi security forces repeatedly called her "bitch," ''slut," and "daughter of a dog" while in investigation, she said.
She described how they handcuffed her, forced her to kneel and beat her on her face, breaking her jaw. When she refused to sign confessions, they attached wires to her handcuffs and fingers, the AP reported.
"When they first put the electricity on me, I gasped; my body went rigid and the bag came off my head," she was quoted by the report as saying. "I saw a green machine, the size of a car battery, with wires attached to it," she added.
After officers told her that they had detained her teenage daughter and would rape her, she then signed and fingerprinted a blank piece of paper. Later on, her lawyer informed her that she was accused of blowing up a house and other attacks.
"The woman was executed seven months after meeting with HRW, in September 2013, despite lower court rulings that dismissed some of the charges against her because a medical report documented that she was tortured into confessing to a crime," the AP reported.
The report entitled "'No One Is Safe': Abuses of Women in Iraq's Criminal Justice System," was based on interviews with 27 women and seven girls in custody between December 2012 and April 2013, as well as their families, lawyers, medical officials in detention centers, Iraqi officials, activists and the U.N. It also cited courts documents, government decisions and reports.
Demonstrators who protested throughout Sunni areas in Iraq for most of last year demanded the release of detained women, the AP reported.
