Growing Up Bin Laden - Jean P. Sasson [63]
Before I left Khartoum to travel to Jeddah, Osama had decided that if our child was a son, he should be named Ladin. As soon as I was well enough to travel, my eldest son, Abdullah, ushered his mother and baby brother, Ladin, safely back to Khartoum.
Everyone loved Ladin because he was such a pretty baby and had special cute ways. After our return to Khartoum, for some reason my husband changed his mind and decided that Ladin should be renamed Bakr. Although Bakr is his proper official name that appears on all his documents, the name Ladin stuck with the children and with me. Of course, such a situation created confusion for our little boy, but I told him that he was so special that he must have two names, and that seemed to satisfy him.
I soon discovered that an additional woman would be joining our family as the wife of my husband, Osama. A year or so after Khadijah and Osama divorced, my husband married another wife. But this new marriage ended quickly because of a secret. Being on paper only (meaning not consummated), she did not become part of our close family group. Therefore, our family unit remained for a time as it was, with three wives and their fourteen children.
Life changes. Things alter. Such matters were out of my hands. But I was at peace, for as a believer, I leave all things to God.
Chapter 12
Golden Times in Khartoum
OMAR BIN LADEN
Who could have known that the happiness I was seeking was waiting for me in African Sudan? When my feet touched the dusty soil of Khartoum, I was only a child of ten, soon to turn eleven. My father met us at the airport with a huge entourage, which was not unusual. I noticed that many of the men accompanying my father were Mujahideen soldiers from his days in Afghanistan, while others were impassioned followers of my father’s beliefs, so all carried a reverence for him.
Happily for his sons, their deference trickled down to us. He was the prince, or so they said. In fact, few people outside our world understand the high degree of love the Arab masses expressed for my father. Although he had to leave Saudi Arabia, his exile came about due to his disagreements with the Saudi royal family, not with ordinary Saudi citizens.
We were to live in a neighborhood called al-Riyadh. Our personal home was a beige-colored house behind walls of the same color, the same kind of concrete block enclosures we had left behind in Saudi Arabia. There was a large beige metal gate. Several of my father’s men rushed to open it so that our large family might enter the grounds.
I exchanged a few glances with my brothers and I knew that we were of the same mind. We were looking at my mother’s new prison, for she basically lived in purdah, a state of almost total isolation where females socialize only with family members, and rarely if ever leave private dwellings. For her entire married life my mother was allowed to leave her home only when we were traveling to visit relatives, or transferring to another family home, such as our farm on the outskirts of Jeddah. I believed that the large house would be my prison as well. The children of Osama bin Laden enjoyed very few ordinary freedoms, although in comparison to the women of the house, we were as free as birds.
As I studied the exterior of the dwelling, I realized the Osama bin Laden family was coming down in the world. Our new home was decidedly smaller and more modest than the spacious mansions we left behind in Saudi Arabia, yet it was larger than any home I had viewed on the trip from the airport. The house appeared to have three separate floors so I hoped it was large enough for four wives and many children.
My father led the way.
My older brothers and I quietly followed in our father’s footsteps, for we knew that he had no patience with children who failed to behave maturely. Even the smallest siblings walked in silence. Our veiled mother and aunties followed behind us because it is our custom for women to follow men.
After entering the yard, Father walked through the double wooden door, painted a dull brown color. Of course