11 June 2007 - 15:45
Saturday, I had lunch with my friend, Hassan. En route to his house, our taxi passed the central prison, and I mentioned how funny I thought it was that 35 prisoners had been able to tunnel their way out of incarceration a month or so ago. Hassan told me that if I thought that was funny, then I would love the story of what happened there about eight months ago…
Apparently, a man who had been convicted of some charge related to his affiliation with the local terrorist group, the Salafist Brotherhood for Preaching and Combat (the Algerian branch of which has recently shifted under the umbrella of Al-Qaida, according to the news), had his wife sneak in a niqab, the head-to-toe veil worn by extremely conservative women in Saudi Arabia. Wearing this outfit (totally not normal wear in Mauritania), the convict walked out of the prison, becoming a fugitive, and has yet to be caught.
Wow.
