Growing Up Bin Laden: Osama's Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their Secret World

by Jean Sasson

  But Najwa was a mother proud of her sensitive son, revealing sweet little stories about Omar’s character and life. As I read Najwa’s letter, I felt compelled to ask Omar if his mother would agree to her story being told as well.

  Much to my surprise, Najwa agreed, but only because her son asked her to participate. Najwa had no desire to attack Osama through this book. In fact, there were limits to the topics she agreed to discuss. As a woman who had led her married life in total isolation, she was not privy to accounts of war, or of her husband’s participation in Jihad. Nevertheless, I knew that others would share my fascination to learn what life was like for the first and most important wife of Osama bin Laden.

  Suddenly I was struck with the thought that Omar’s story would be the first book by a real bin Laden. It would be the only story to tell the truth of life in the home of the infamous terrorist.

  I spoke with Omar several more times, asking Omar’s true feelings about his father’s activities and the deaths of innocent people. I did not want to participate in the project if Omar believed that his father had valid reasons for his murderous behavior. I was concerned, too, when I read a number of internet articles in which Omar seemed inconsistent about his father’s cruel actions. Indeed, while Omar proclaimed his hatred of violence, for a long time he seemed unable to accept as true that his father had been the man responsible for 9/11 and other despicable acts of violence. Then I reminded myself that most people would find it difficult to believe that someone they loved could be capable of terrorism.

  The fact that a son could not fathom his own father ordering the deaths of innocent civilians was easy to comprehend. Moreover, conspiracy theories dominate public opinion in much of the Arab world. Much of the convincing evidence of Osama bin Laden’s participation in 9/11 came from the American government, a government hated by most of the Arab world. In fact, few Arabs believe any reports that originate in Washington, London, Berlin, or Paris.

  After Osama bin Laden released various audiotapes and videotapes, some taking responsibility for 9/11 and other violent acts, Omar finally admitted that it appeared his father had indeed ordered the attacks. Omar seemed understandably shell-shocked by some of his father’s recordings. As much as he had wanted to believe the best of his father, he could no longer cling to the hope that his father was not guilty.

  After learning many details about Osama bin Laden, his family, and the al-Qaeda commanders and soldiers who were an ever-increasing presence as Omar was growing up, my heart told me that this was an important story that should be told. I believe we should demand to know everything about the man behind the death of so many innocents, and it would be impossible to get any closer to the private world of Osama bin Laden than through his first wife and his fourth-born son.

  When we look back, it becomes clear that the acts and accomplishments of human beings are the signatures of history. Human signatures have created an enormous chasm between the joyous light of the age of the Renaissance to the dark shadow of September 11, 2001. Those of us living on that fateful day experienced the lower depths of mankind. As an author, avid reader, world traveler, and person of enormous curiosity, my life experiences have taught me that discord often erupts from a lack of knowledge and education. To discourage future dark moments, I believe we must nourish the minds of our young with learning that creates understanding between ethnic and religious groups. Perhaps understanding will lead to a marvelous day when we see the last of the violence that is so harmful to so many. I sincerely believe that nothing will further the cause of peace more than the education of our young. I would like readers to know that a percentage of the profits from the sale of this book will be devoted to the cause of education.

  May all roads lead to peace.

  —Jean Sasson

  A 1964 painting of Osama’s father, Mohammed bin Laden. (Courtesy of Omar bin Laden Family Photo Collection)

  Osama bin Laden, age 16, one year before he married his cousin, Najwa. Jeddah, 1973. (Courtesy of Omar bin Laden Family Photo Collection)

  Left: Osama in Afghanistan fighting the Russians, 1984. (Courtesy of Omar bin Laden Family Photo Collection)

  Right: Omar, age 3, in Jeddah, 1984. (Courtesy of Omar bin Laden Family Photo Collection)

  Osama bin Laden wearing military garb during his period of fighting the Russians. Photo taken at a farm in Jeddah, 1985. (Courtesy of Omar bin Laden Family Photo Collection)

  Above: Omar bin Laden, age 6, the year the family moved to Medina and Omar started school. (Courtesy of Omar bin Laden Family Photo Collection)

  Right: Sa’ad, Osman, and Mohammed in Osama’s study at family home in Jeddah, 1990. (Courtesy of Omar bin Laden Family Photo Collection)

  Fatima, Sa’ad, Omar, (holding ball with Abdullah), Mohammed (yellow shirt), Osman, and Abdul Rahman in bin Laden family sitting room in Jeddah, 1989. (Courtesy of Omar bin Laden Family Photo Collection)

  Omar and his baby sister, Fatima, at family home in Jeddah, 1990. (Courtesy of Omar bin Laden Family Photo Collection)

  From left to right: Omar, Fatima, and Sa’ad in Jeddah family home, 1990. (Courtesy of Omar bin Laden Family Photo Collection)

  Abdullah bin Laden in Sudan working on his father’s heavy equipment, 1993. (Courtesy of Omar bin Laden Family Photo Collection)

  Abdullah bin Laden on the Nile in Khartoum, 1993. (Courtesy of Omar bin Laden Family Photo Collection)

  Omar in his bedroom in Khartoum, 1993. (Courtesy of Omar bin Laden Family Photo Collection)

  Happy days for Omar in Khartoum. (Courtesy of Omar bin Laden Family Photo Collection)

  A small Afghan village Omar passed through on his way from Jalalabad to Tora Bora. (Hill Bermont)

  The burqa that women are forced to wear in Afghanistan. (Hill Bermont)

  Omar and his son, Ahmed, in Jeddah, 2005. (Courtesy of Omar bin Laden Family Photo Collection)

  Omar bin Laden with his beloved horse in Jeddah, 2007. (Courtesy of Omar bin Laden Family Photo Collection)

  Appendix A

  Osama bin Laden’s Family:

  Who Were They? What Happened to Them?

  A note about the spelling of the family name: According to Omar bin Laden, his father’s name is routinely misspelled, and “Ossama Binladen” is correct. For the sake of ease, however, the decision was made to use the preferred spelling adopted by most of the world’s publications, which is Osama bin Laden.

  Osama bin Laden’s Parents

  ALLIA GHANEM

  Osama’s mother, Allia, was born in 1943 in Latakia, Syria. After marriage to Mohammed bin Laden in 1956, she moved to Saudi Arabia, where their only child, Osama, was born in Riyadh on February 15, 1957. When Osama was only a year old, Allia became pregnant a second time, but lost the child after a freak accident when she was injured by a faulty wringer-washer machine. Shortly after the miscarriage, Allia asked her husband for a divorce, which was granted. Living in a world where divorced women cannot live alone, Allia married for a second time, to Muhammad al-Attas, a kindly man and respected employee of her former husband’s rapidly expanding construction company.

  Allia and Muhammad al-Attas became the parents of four children, three sons and a daughter. Osama lived with his mother, stepfather, and four siblings in the Mushraf neighborhood of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he grew up, and where he brought his first cousin and first bride, Najwa.

  It is said that Allia, a loving mother, cannot accept the fact that her son was involved in the September 11, 2001, attacks. Up until early 2009, Allia and Muhammad resided in the same villa where Osama grew up.

  MUHAMMAD AL-ATTAS

  Osama’s stepfather comes from an old Jeddah merchant family. Omar says that his step-grandfather is a gentle and kind man, loved and respected by all who know him, including his stepson, Osama.

  MOHAMMED BIN LADEN

  Although there are no official birth records, it is believed that Osama bin Laden’s father was born between 1906 and 1908 in Rubat, Hadramaut, located in southeastern Yemen.
After Mohammed’s father died unexpectedly, he traveled with his younger brother, Abdullah, to seek employment outside Yemen. After a series of misadventures, the two brothers settled in Saudi Arabia, where Mohammed won the trust of the first king of Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz al-Saud, for his work on various construction projects. With the backing of the king, Mohammed soon formed the Saudi bin Laden Group, which grew to be one of the largest companies in Saudi Arabia. Later the company spread into other countries in the region. The increasingly prosperous Mohammed bin Laden married many women and became the father of numerous children, twenty-two sons and thirty-three daughters. Omar says that his father is the eighteenth of the twenty-two sons. Mohammed bin Laden died in 1967 as a result of injuries sustained in a plane crash.

  Wives

  NAJWA GHANEM, MARRIED IN 1974

  Najwa Ghanem was born in 1958 in Latakia, Syria, to Ibrahim and Nabeeha. Ibrahim married five times before marrying Nabeeha, but his were monogamous marriages. He had only one son from his previous marriages, a boy named Ali. Nabeeha was his sixth and final wife. Ibrahim and Nabeeha were the parents of five children, born in this order: Naji, Najwa, Nabeel, Ahmed, and Leila. Najwa married her seventeen-year-old cousin Osama in 1974 when she was fifteen. After four or five months, Osama, Allia, and Muhammad al-Attas traveled to Syria to escort Najwa to her new home in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Ibrahim went with his daughter and remained in Jeddah for a visit.

  Najwa and Osama became the parents of eleven children. Najwa moved with her husband from Saudi Arabia to Sudan, and then to Afghanistan. Between September 7 and 9, 2001, Najwa left Afghanistan for good. She now lives with her family in Syria. Her son Abdul Rahman and her two youngest daughters live with her.

  KHADIJAH SHARIF, MARRIED IN 1983

  Nine years older than her ex-husband, Osama, Khadijah is from a family descended from the Prophet. A highly educated woman, she had worked as a teacher before marrying Osama bin Laden. After giving birth to three children, and while living in Sudan, she divorced her husband and returned to live in Saudi Arabia where she still lives. Her eldest son, Ali, is in prison in Saudi Arabia, having been sentenced to fifteen years for allegedly possessing an illegal weapon.

  KHAIRIAH SABAR, MARRIED IN 1985

  Khairiah’s family is also descended from the Prophet. Educated to teach deaf-mute children, Khairiah became Osama’s third wife after Najwa arranged the marriage. The mother of one son, Hamza, Khairiah remained in Afghanistan with her husband after the events of September 11, 2001. No one knows if Khairiah and her son survived the American bomb attacks in October and November of 2001.

  SIHAM SABAR, MARRIED IN 1987

  Siham’s family is also descended from the Prophet. She is Osama’s fourth wife and the mother of four children. She remained in Afghanistan with her husband and children after the events of September 11, 2001. No one knows if Siham and her four children survived the U.S. retaliatory strikes that followed.

  FIFTH MARRIAGE (ANNULLED)

  Osama’s fifth marriage was held in Khartoum, Sudan, shortly after his second wife divorced him and returned to Saudi Arabia. However, according to Najwa bin Laden, this fifth marriage remained unconsummated and was annulled within forty-eight hours.

  AMAL AL-SADAH, MARRIED IN LATE 2000 OR EARLY 2001

  Dismissing the marriage that was annulled, Amal is Osama’s fifth wife and bore him one daughter, named Safia. No one knows if Amal and her child returned to Yemen after September 11, 2001, or if they remained in Afghanistan during the American bombings.

  Children with First Wife, Najwa Ghanem

  ABDULLAH

  Najwa’s first child and eldest son was born in Jeddah in 1976. As the eldest son, Abdullah held the most honored position of all the children of Osama bin Laden. When he became a teenager, Abdullah began to speak his opinion on matters affecting the family. Abdullah left the family in Khartoum in 1995 when he traveled to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to marry his cousin, Tiayba Mohammed bin Laden. Abdullah chose not to return to Khartoum, instead remaining in Jeddah with his wife and children where he operates a small business. Abdullah lives a quiet life, shunning all publicity, although he remains close to his mother, Najwa, whom he visits in Syria. Abdullah was thirty-three years old in 2009.

  ABDUL RAHMAN

  Najwa’s second child and second son was born in Jeddah in 1978. According to Omar, his brother Abdul Rahman was an exceptional child who had to face unique personal trials. Abdul Rahman departed Afghanistan with his mother in September 2001. Since that time, Abdul Rahman has been unable to reinstate his Saudi nationality and has found it difficult to find employment or to marry without official papers. A talented horseman, Abdul Rahman lives quietly with his mother and two youngest siblings in Latakia, shunning all publicity like his elder brother. Abdul Rahman was thirty-one years old in 2009.

  SA’AD

  Najwa’s third child and third son was born in Jeddah in 1979. A garrulous child, Sa’ad remained overly talkative even as an adult, often exasperating his brothers and other acquaintances. Osama refused permission for Sa’ad, his Sudanese-born wife, or their son, Osama, to leave Afghanistan with Najwa in 2001. Since then, there have been reports that Sa’ad was arrested while traveling through Iran and may still be in detention in that country, although there is no solid evidence of his incarceration. There was yet another recent report claiming that Sa’ad had been released and had left Iran, but no one, including Najwa, is certain about the fate of her third-born son. In July 2009, reports claimed that Sa’ad may have been killed in a U.S. missile strike in Pakistan, but this has not been confirmed. If still alive in 2009, Sa’ad would be thirty years old.

  OMAR

  Najwa’s fourth child and fourth son was born in Jeddah in 1981. Omar was the son closest to his mother and the son who most vigorously rebelled against his father and his Jihad. In fact, it has been Omar’s dream to counter his father’s violent Jihad by organizing a peace movement that will find a better way to solve cultural and religious differences.

  After leaving Afghanistan for the final time in 2001, Omar has met many challenges. Although successful in having his Saudi citizenship restored, it has been difficult for Omar to find his place in the business world. Omar married and had one son, Ahmed. When traveling in Egypt, Omar met a woman from Great Britain. The couple fell in love, bringing his first marriage to an end. Since that time, Omar has become even more passionate in calling for an end to violence, longing for the bin Laden name to become linked with peace rather than with terrorism. Wishing to join his wife to live in the United Kingdom, where he believes he will find it easier to form a peace movement, Omar applied for a routine marriage visa. Problems arose with his visa application, resulting in a quest for political asylum. Finally, through the generosity of the government of Qatar, Omar and his wife settled there while waiting for his visa. At the time of writing, Omar has returned to Saudi Arabia, the country he loves most. In 2009, Omar was twenty-eight years old.

  OSMAN

  Najwa’s fifth child and fifth son was born in 1983 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In 2001 Osman married the daughter of Egyptian Mohammed Shawky al-Islam-bouli, a high-ranking member of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman’s al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya group and who was closely affliated with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda group. Osman’s father-in-law, along with 107 other defendants, had previously been indicted in 1997 by the Egyptian government in the conspiracy to assassinate President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, as well as other Egyptian leaders. Al-Islambouli’s brother, Khalid, was infamous for being the lead assassin of President Sadat on October 6, 1981. Khalid had shouted, “Death to Pharaoh” as he ran toward Sadat to shoot him. Khalid was arrested and at trial found guilty of the crime and executed the following year, in April 1982. Osama would not allow Osman or his wife to leave Afghanistan with Najwa. Rumors have circululated that Osman escaped from Afghanistan during the October/November 2001 bombings by the American government, along with Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, but there is no firm evidence of this. Najwa does not
know the fate of her fifth-born son or his wife. If still alive in 2009, Osman would be twenty-six years old.

  MOHAMMED

  Najwa’s sixth child and sixth son was born in 1985 in Jeddah. Omar reports that Mohammed was his father’s second choice for his successor as head of al-Qaeda. (Up until he expressed his disapproval of violence, Omar had been his father’s first choice.) Omar also says that of all his brothers, Mohammed is the only brother possessing some of the qualities necessary to assume an important position in his father’s organization. After marrying the daughter of Abu Hafs in 2000, Mohammed was the most content of the sons to remain behind with his father. Najwa does not know the fate of her son or of his wife. If still alive in 2009, Mohammed would be twenty-four years old.

  FATIMA

  Najwa’s seventh child and first daughter was born in Medina in 1987. After Omar suggested a groom, Osama then arranged for the marriage of Fatima to a Saudi fighter named Mohammed in 1999 when Fatima was twelve years old. Her husband was killed in the American attacks of October and November 2001. Najwa does not know the fate of her first daughter, although it is believed that she is living in the Pakistani tribal hinterlands near her father. If still alive in 2009, Fatima would be twenty-two years old.