Men have used this female dress to escape or hide their identity.

1.Mustaf Jama
A Somali man wanted over the murder of a British police officer escaped the country disguised as a veiled Muslim woman on December 20, 2006. He was not only able to elude police but also leave the country through supposedly tight antiterrorist airport security.

2. Maulana Abdul Aziz
The leader of Islamabad's Red Mosque was caught in a failed escape attempt in Burqa on July 4, 2007.

3. Yassir Omer
26, the alleged suspect of 21/7 terror plot was reportedly fleeing London in Burqa.

4. Mullah Memood
A Taliban commander in the southern Afghanistan caught while fleeing in Burqa on March o6, 2007.

5. A Canadian Thief
A burqa-clad thief and his accomplice robbed a Brampton, Ontario, in Canada, jewelry store of Abdul Rasheed Khalid, owner of about $1 million in jewels, in November 2006.

6. Abu Faraj al-Libbi
In March, 2005, an alleged terrorist, known as Al-Qaeda's Number three, Abu Faraj al-Libbi was captured by Pakistani intelligence men in Mardan, N.W.F.P. when he was on his way to rendezvous with a terror contact.

7. Pakistani Suicide Bomber
On October 2, 2007, a burqa-clad suicide bomber blew himself killing 16 and injuring 29 people in Bnnu area of N.W.F.P province of Pakistan.

8. Himesh Reshammiya
In July 2007, a popular Indian singer Himesh Reshammiya entered the Muslim shrine in Ajmer Sharif fully clad in a black burqa to avoid fan mob. This angered the Muslims and he then apologized.

9. An Indian Boyfriend
In July 2006, Indian police detained a man who was wearing burqa to meet his girlfriend at Chhtrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, India.

10. Maulana Abdul Sattar Niazi
It is said that a top Pakistani politician, Maulana Abdul Sattar Niazi, escaped in burqa in 1971 from Bangladesh, the then East Pakistan, to avoid Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's wrath.

First published in October, 2007