Libya’s new Magdalen homes

On the *Guardian*’s website (but not in the print edition), [Brian Whitaker reports](http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,,1720032,00.html) on the prisons the Libyan state has set up for so-called fallen women – some of them rape victims, some of whom simply have family problems – in which the only escape is as cheap brides:

>Despite their name, the rehabilitation centres have a distinctly prison-like character, Human Rights Watch says, and for all practical purposes they are indeed jails: “The women and girls sleep in locked quarters and are not allowed to leave the gates of the compound. The custodians sometimes subject them to long periods of solitary confinement, occasionally in handcuffs, for trivial reasons like ‘talking back’.
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>”They are tested for communicable diseases without their consent upon entry, and most are forced to endure invasive virginity examinations. Some residents are as young as 16, but [the] authorities provide no education, except weekly religious instruction.”

In today’s Guardian, [Anna Politkovskaya reports](http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1720318,00.html) on a mass outbreak of a mysterious disease in Chechnya, believed to be caused by chemical exposure, but which is claimed by the Government to be nothing more than mass hysteria related to the war.