Burkas & Boko Haram

Last week Boko Haram launched a terrorist attack on Chad as 2 suicuide bombers took the lives of about 30 people and injured more than 100 in the capital city of N'Djamena.  The next day, the president of Chad ordered all burkas and mens' turbans removed from peoples' faces and also ordered the military to burn all burkas and turbans that they found in the market.  At the time I couldn't imagine how this new order was going to be helpful in preventing another attack, but today I heard a story that helped it to make more sense.  A friend was eating dinner with us and she shared that in another town some women dressed in burkas were waiting for a moto taxi (which at this point in the story seemed strange to me because women don't usually take motorcycle taxi's, but I assumed that maybe things were different in a small town. )  She said that the man on the moto taxi was going to pull up and offer them a ride when a gust of wind blew up one of the ladies' burkas to reveal a long beard.  Thinking this was somewhat strange, the man quickly made an excuse that his moto wasn't working well and they would have to take the next ride that came along.  He then drove away and quickly notified the police which in turn came and found out that the "ladies" were actually Boko Haram.  So, now it all makes more sense why the president is removing the burkas in efforts to stop their plans.  If they want to dress up like women and kill people, then they will have to do it as a bearded woman!  We pray that there are no more terrorist attacks here or anywhere else for that matter.

Here is a photo of me with my head covering over my face (much like a burka), something most women do when going about the town simply to keep the dust out of their face.