Growing Up Bin Laden - Jean P. Sasson [181]
KHALID
Siham’s second child and first son with Osama was born in 1989 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Little is known about Khalid, although he remained with his mother in Afghanistan. If Khalid survived the 2001 bomb attacks, he would most likely be living with his parents in Pakistan. If still alive in 2009, Khalid would be twenty years old.
MIRIAM
Siham’s third child and second daughter with Osama was born in 1990 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Born prematurely, and on the same day as Najwa’s daughter Iman, Miriam had a challenging early life. Little is known of Miriam other than she remained with her mother in Afghanistan. If Miriam survived the 2001 bomb attacks, her father would have arranged an early marriage to a fighter at puberty, and she would probably be living today in Pakistan with her family. If alive in 2009, Miriam would be nineteen years old.
SUMAIYA
Siham’s fourth child and third daughter with Osama was born in 1992 in Khartoum, Sudan. Little is known about Sumaiya other than she remained with her mother in Afghanistan. It is believed that her father would have arranged a marriage to one of his fighters at the onset of puberty. If Sumaiya survived the 2001 attacks on Afghanistan, she would probably be living with her family in Pakistan. If alive in 2009, Sumaiya would be seventeen years old.
Child with Fifth Wife, Yemeni Amal al-Sadah
SAFIA
Amal’s first child and first daughter with Osama. Although Safia’s mother married Osama bin Laden in Kandahar, Afghanistan, prior to Najwa’s leaving the country, unlike his other marriages, Najwa knew little of Amal. Today there is no firm information about Amal al-Sadah or her daughter, Safia. Some reports have Osama sending Amal and Safia back to Yemen and out of danger before the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, while others say that Amal and Safia remained with Osama and his extended family, fleeing Afghanistan into Pakistan. Since Najwa and Omar are no longer in contact with the family, there is no current factual information to report. However, if Amal and her child remained in Afghanistan through the bombings and survived the attacks, Safia would be around eight years old in 2009.
Appendix B
Osama bin Laden Chronology
The following are important dates in Osama bin Laden’s personal, political, militant, and Islamic life from 1957 to 2009.
1957: Friday, February 15: Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Aboud bin Laden al-Qatani* is born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in the early hours of the morning to Mohammed Awad bin Laden and Allia Ghanem. He is the eighteenth of twenty-two sons that will be born to Mohammed Awad bin Laden, and the first child born to Allia Ghanem. His paternal and maternal families hail from Hadramaut in Yemen. A young Mohammed bin Laden settled in Saudi Arabia and became a Saudi citizen. Allia Ghanem’s family settled in Syria and became Syrian citizens. Their only child, Osama, is born a citizen of Saudi Arabia.
1959: Mohammed Awad bin Laden and Allia Ghanem divorce. Allia keeps physical custody of her son, Osama, although he remains a part of his father’s family.
1959: Allia Ghanem marries Muhammad al-Attas and will have four children with her second husband.
1963: Osama is registered at the Al-Thager Model School in Jeddah, considered to be one of the most progressive schools in Saudi Arabia.
1966: Osama’s father purchases the family’s first aeroplane.
1967: On September 3, there is a plane crash at Oom, Saudi Arabia, and Osama’s father, Mohammed bin Laden, is killed.
1974: Osama marries Najwa Ghanem. Najwa is fifteen and Osama is seventeen. Najwa is his mother’s niece, and Osama’s first cousin. A simple wedding is held in Syria, at the home of Najwa’s parents. According to Najwa, media reports are wrong that she was coerced into the marriage. Her marriage to