Ricci Shryock
March 14, 2026
The first time she entered the prison, she felt as if she were going to faint. The year was 2021. Maïmouna Diouf had been found guilty of infanticide — a charge she denies, claiming she gave birth to a stillborn child that she buried without notifying the authorities.
Diouf looked around her shared room in the Thies detention center in Thies, Senegal. She was one of 10 prisoners assigned to sleep in the small space. There were dirty, old mattresses on the floor, she says. There was a smell coming from them that she could not exactly place. “This is my life now? How am I supposed to sleep here?” she thought to herself.
Continued: https://wbhm.org/npr-story/why-women-have-an-especially-tough-time-in-senegals-prisons/