his arms and legs as a result of the torture. After she died in the custody of Iranian officials, Zahra "Ziba" Kazemi-Ahmadabadi, an Iranian-Canadian freelance photographer, was found to show obvious signs of torture, including a skull fracture, broken nose, signs of rape and severe abdominal bruising. Ehsan Fatahian, an Iranian Kurdish activist, was tortured for confession before being executed. Zeynab Jalalian, also a Kurdish activist, is currently ill due to prison conditions and torture. She has been sentenced to death. Other notable victims include Behrouz Javid Tehrani, Habibollah Latifi, Houshang Asadi, Saeed Malekpour, Shirkoh (Bahman) Moarefi, Hossein Khezri, and Akbar Mohammadi. In a study of torture in Iran published in 1999, Iranian-born political historian Ervand Abrahamian included Iran along with "Stalinist Russia, Maoist China, and early modern Europe" of the Inquisition and witch hunts, as societies that "can be considered to be in a league of their own" in the systematic use of torture. Torture techniques used in the Islamic Republic include: whipping, sometimes of the back but most often of the feet with the body tied on an iron bed; the qapani; deprivation of sleep; suspension from ceiling and high walls; twisting of forearms until they broke; crushing of hands and fingers between metal presses; insertion of sharp instruments under the fingernails; cigarette burns; submersion under water; standing in one place for hours on end; mock executions; and physical threats against family members. Of these, the most prevalent was the whipping of soles, obviously because it was explicitly sanctioned by the sharia. Chronicle of Higher Education International, reports that the widespread practice of raping women imprisoned for engaging in political protest has been effective in keeping female college students "less outspoken and less likely to take part" in political demonstrations. The journal quotes an Iranian college student as saying, "most of the girls arrested are raped in jail. Families can't cope with that." Several bills passed the Iranian Parliament that would have had Iran joining the international convention on banning torture in 2003 when reformists controlled Parliament, but were rejected by the Guardian Council. Iraq The government headed by Baathist Saddam Hussein made extensive use of torture, including at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. The post-invasion Iraqi government holds thousands of people in prison. After investigating from July to October 2004, Human Rights Watch found that torture was "routine and commonplace." According to their report, Despite apparently credible