Female Hiker inIranian Prison to be released on Monday

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

here

I'm sure you all know this story, to a degree. Hope this leads to the release of the other two hikers as well.

But the reports about this story still leave me with one lagging question:

What the hell were they were hiking there for anyway?

I mean, there are perfectly hike-able mountains in Pennsylvania, or New York, with no risk of of accidentally crossing over the border into a hostile country! I can't figure that out. They should be charged with stupidity.

 

[SPOCKED]

Good question.

But whatever the reason, its cost them a year of their lives.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I hope they all get to go home, and stay there.

 

[sojourner]

This a strange juxtaposition with the Lost Year thread.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

But the reports about this story still leave me with one lagging question:

What the hell were they were hiking there for anyway?

I mean, there are perfectly hike-able mountains in Pennsylvania, or New York, with no risk of of accidentally crossing over the border into a hostile country! I can't figure that out. They should be charged with stupidity.

The couple and their friend weren't living in the US at the time, they were living in Damascus, Syria teaching English to Iraqi refugees, working as a freelance reporter, and teaching sustainable living respectively.

The region of Iraq they were hiking in, Iraqi Kurdistan, is a fairly peaceful autonomous region that is a popular tourist attraction in the Middle East for its mountains and waterfalls.

The hikers claimed to be on the Iraqi side of the border, a claim that some Kurdish villagers back up (they say cross-border incursions by the Iranians are frequent) and that they were kidnapped by Iranian border guards, while the Iranians claimed they had crossed the border and were spying. The US State Dept. split the difference and said they probably accidentally wandered over the border into Iran because the border in this remote region is not very well marked.