Six days before International Women's Day, women prisoners in Maghaberry Jail were reminded of Britain's contempt for the rights of Irish women. This is the women's own account of what happened, slightly abridged from An Phoblacht/Republican News.
The governor of Maghaberry Jail, Mr Bob Gibson, and the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) decided that their contribution to International Women's Day should be spectacular. The male hierarchy decided that the best way to contribute to IWD was to assert their control over one of the most vulnerable groups of women within society. Abusing their power and armed with a wealth of mysterious "facts" originating from anonymous "sources", the plan was hatched.
On March 2, women POWs were told that a search of the jail was to take place and that we would all be subject to a strip-search. The screws were informed that POWs objected very strongly to this unprecedented outrage. POWs were threatened with loss of remission and solitary confinement if they did not comply with the order to strip naked. The threat was intended to coerce women into submitting to the indignity of a humiliating strip search. However, 22 women decided to resist and defend themselves as best they could under the circumstances.
What happened next can only be described as sexual, physical and psychological torture. Gangs of screws dressed in riot gear and armed with batons and shields entered the wings. A gang of screws entered a cell and set upon the defenceless women inside (anything up to 16 screws in each cell).
The POWs were dragged to the floor, their faces pushed tightly into the floor so that they could not see their attackers and their mouths covered to stifle their screams. Once the screws had the woman into a secure lock, more screws began to remove her clothes until she was totally naked. Every other woman in the jail could hear each attack as it took place, so in actual fact each woman spent the entire day listening to her comrades being sexually abused before and after her own turn came.
The use of strip-searching has been well researched and it has been concluded time and again that this practice has no security value. Society rejects such barbaric behaviour as inhuman sexual abuse. It is no accident that men made the decision to pursue this line, and only in women's jails are prisoners expected to strip totally naked while being searched.
When one woman refused to be strip-searched and a doctor objected to her being forcibly strip-searched, it was decided that she could be searched by medical officers using metal detectors. Obviously this kind of search, which none of us would have objected to, was enough to satisfy security requirements. Why then was the forcible strip-searching of women POWs pursued? One can only conclude that degradation, control and submission were on the agenda.
The board of visitors were in jail on that day. One member of this tchdog body stood and watched women being stripped naked. We regard their presence as participating and their silence as consent.
We have given individual statements to our solicitors while the NIO embark on a game of pass-the-parcel of blame. Statements emanating from that department about the events of March 2 range from the bizarre to downright insulting. Phrases such as "women over-reacting", "unnecessary violent reaction" and "routine search" have been employed to describe 10 hours of systematic abuse of women prisoners.
All 21 women who resisted the sexual assault on that day sustained injuries of some description. One received severe bruising to her face and was temporarily transferred to an outside hospital, others are awaiting results of tests to determine the extent of their physical injuries.
What is incalculable are the psychological scars the women now have to bear. These women must now spend years in the very cells in which we were violated with such enthusiasm. The NIO wants to terrorise women prisoners, to beat us into submission because we continue to defy their attempts to impose their will on us. This they call the battle for hearts and minds!
It is only one part, a disgusting and deplorable part, of an overall policy to control women prisoners, pursued by the latest governor to arrive at Maghaberry, Mr Gibson. It is no surprise this has happened, as he has done his utmost to cut women off from each other by denying association; to cut women off from their families by ensuring that originally bad visiting conditions are now deplorable; to cut women off from our communities through the worsening censorship of literature and mail.
The latest part of this process is the attempt to dehumanise us by forcing their way into our cells, stripping away our personal clothing, invading the most intimate and private parts of our bodies, and all the while inflicting physical and mental pain.
To add insult to injury, 21 POWs are now to be charged with assault. What will happen to the male and female warders who took part in the attack? Will they be given medals?
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