The Magadalene Sisters Asylum Scandal was a scandal in Ireland starting in the early 2000s concerning a system of Roman Catholic Church convents and their systematic gross violation of the human rights of the female inmates.
It became public knowledge that these convents, which were intended to house women who were judged as violating the prevailing female sexual social mores, subjected their inmates to de facto slave labour, predominately in laundries. In addition, survivors of these prisons testified to continual sexual, psychological and physical abuse while being isolated from the outside world for an indefinite amount of time.
The pretexts for women to be imprisoned in these facilites included having an illegitimate pregnancy, being a victim of sexual assault, prostitution, being developmentally challenged or simply being too attractive in eyes of their accusers. Often times, it was the woman's own family who committed her to these prisons, and their release was often at the discretion of the family. In many cases, the women were simply abandoned by their families and they were condemned to the convent for life.
It has been estimated that around 30,000 women were imprisoned during the 150-year history of these convents and they were not entirely closed down until September 25, 1996.
The conditions of these convents and the treatment of the inmates is dramatized in the acclaimed film, The Magdalene Sisters.
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