Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Growing Up bin Laden: Osama's Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their Secret World
    Growing Up bin Laden: Osama's Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their Secret World
    Growing Up bin Laden: Osama's Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their Secret World
    Audiobook14 hours

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

    Written by Najwa Bin Laden, Omar Bin Laden and Jean Sasson

    Narrated by Lorna Raver, Mel Foster and Sherry Adams

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    "I was not always the wife of Osama bin Laden. Once I was an innocent child dreaming little girl dreams."

    Thus begins this powerful story by Najwa bin Laden, who married her cousin Osama bin Laden at the age of fifteen to become his first wife and the mother to eleven of his children, and her son, Omar bin Laden, the fourth-born son of Osama bin Laden. Together, mother and son tell an extraordinarily powerful story of a man hated by so many yet both loved and feared by his family, with spine-tingling details about the life and times of the man they knew as a husband and father, including:

    -Osama's disapproval of modern conveniences, including electricity and medicine

    -His plan to toughen up his sons by taking them into the desert without food or water

    -Transporting his wives and children to the rough terrain of Sudan, where he claimed to be preparing them for attacks from western powers, commanding them to dig holes and to sleep in those holes, allowing nothing more than sand and twigs for cover

    -Omar's horror at the rape and murder of a boy his own age by members of a jihadist group living among them in the Sudan

    -What happened in the bin Laden home in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on the morning of September 11, 2001, and Omar's surprise phone call with his mother, who escaped from Afghanistan only two days before the shattering events that killed so many innocent people

    Since September 11, 2001, journalists have struggled to uncover carefully guarded information about Osama's private life. Until now, Osama bin Laden's family members have not cooperated with any writers or journalists. Now, with unprecedented access and insight, Jean Sasson, author of the bestselling Princess: A True Story Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia, takes us inside the secret world of Osama bin Laden.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateNov 10, 2009
    ISBN9781400184071

    Related to Growing Up bin Laden

    Related audiobooks

    Biography & Memoir For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Havenfall

      Feb 26, 2020

      RELEASED 3 MARCH 304 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Sara Holland Publisher Bloomsbury Adolescence is hard enough at the best of times, but throw in a murdered brother, a mother on death row and a high school full of bullies that really don’t apprecia

      1 min read

    • Article

      Anew Global Citizen

      Dec 15, 2020

      Anew Global Citizen
      4 min read

    • Article

      Echos Of Our Lost Home In Gaza

      Mar 21, 2024

      "On learning that Israeli bombs turned my four-generation home to rubble, a storm of rage brewed within. The bombs destroyed not just our land, but also our hopes and memories."

      5 min read

    • Article

      How The World Turns A Blind Eye To African Slavery

      Oct 27, 2022

      SINCE I WAS OLD ENOUGH TO READ ABOUT Africa, I have been fascinated by the Tuareg. For more than a thousand years they were the fierce, veiled, camel-riding, sword-wielding warlords of the Sahara until they were ruthlessly conquered in the late ninet

      18 min read

    • Article

      BOOK EXCERPT: Modern Jungles

      Mar 2, 2021

      BOOK EXCERPT: Modern Jungles
      8 min read

    • Article

      As the World Collapses

      Jul 27, 2017

      As the World Collapses
      7 min read

    • Article

      Homecoming

      Sep 20, 2021

      Homecoming
      7 min read

    • Article

      Venice Peach

      Oct 2, 2023

      1. THE DRESSMAKER AND THE HIDDEN SOLDIER by Doug Gold (A&U) WWII thriller about Kiwi soldier and Greek dressmaker 2. SUMMER FAVOURITES by Vanya Insull (A&U) Recipes from @vj_cooks 3. TE REO KAPEKAPE: Māori Wit and Humour by Hona Black (Oratia) Having

      4 min read

    • Article

      Forced To Flee My Home

      Apr 19, 2022

      Forced To Flee My Home
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Herero

      Nov 29, 2022

      The Herero
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Bedouin

      Sep 6, 2021

      The Bedouin
      6 min read

    • Article

      Losing My Rock

      Jun 19, 2019

      Losing My Rock
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Growing Up bin Laden

    4/5

    33 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      I hought it was interesting and insightful. Might be a little long for some people.
    • 4/5
      "Life WAS more agreeable when my father was far, far away", 10 January 2016This review is from: Growing Up Bin Laden (Paperback)Ghost written by Jean Sasson, the insider information about Osama's real character and family life comes from his first wife, Najwa, and fourth son, Omar.Najwa recalls her teenage marriage, her husband's promises to protect her like a prized pearl ...which all seems so tragic as the bright, normal Syrian girl has to take the veil and unquestioningly accept her husband's decisions, whether it's to take more wives or to forbid the family to use the air-conditioning and fridge (as all modern inventions are 'un-Islamic': strangely that doesn't include the fast cars that Osama so likes.Meanwhile Omar recalls life as one of a huge family (his mother alone had eleven children), his father's unbending sternness and devotion to jihad - even asking his sons to volunteer as suicide bombers. And as Osama's antics cause countries to 'evict' him, the family moved from the comfort of Saudi Arabia to Sudan to the bleak, freezing Tora Bora Mountains of Afghanistan....Very interesting read.
    • 4/5
      I really liked the segments by Najwa, Osama's first wife. She really gives us a great picture of who Osama was as a man and as a husband, that really challenges the stereotypes we are bombarded with by politicians and the corporate media. By and large, he seems to have cared a lot about her and treated her as well as he could, or well as he could under the circumstances he generated. She is a woman who still clearly loves her husband and despite everything remains loyal to his memory. There are times when she seems cognizant that something is wrong, as when she discusses the loneliness she felt when Osama took his second wife, but found comfort in the patriarchal dogma of her religion. She is a sensitive and loving woman, and a smart woman, albeit a smart woman whose dedication to her husband and her children overrode any concern for her own welfare.Omar's accounts are also interesting. Although his father treated his wife and daughters well, he was much harsher in raising his sons. In a large way, Osama saw his sons as the Islamic soldiers of the future, and raised him towards this purpose. A sensitive boy, Omar would not be molded the way his father wanted, and craved for his love. I can understand why he broke from his father, and I can understand and respect why he has striven for peace, particularly in light of his life situation, but I don't necessarily understand why the book tries to construct him as brave. It could be said that he was brave in standing up to his father the way he did, but I don't see that it was particularly brave to flee his family in Afghanistan to live the life of luxury and privilege that he was accustomed to as a child. He was also far less than brave or else extremely naïve to deny that Saudi Arabia was behind the assassination attempt against his father when they were living in Sudan. Presumably, Omar recognized that he would wear out his welcome in Saudi Arabia were he to make the obvious conclusions about the actions of the Saudi royals. All of this said, Osama's son seems to be a good man with a troubled past, trying to find his way forward. His relationship with his father provides the reader with a helpful and interesting alternative to Najwa's more intimate perspective.Jean Sasson's commentary is rather irritating for the most part. Her purpose in this book seems simply to be to reconcile these first person accounts humanizing Osama with the xenophobic accounts of the corporate media portraying him as an inhuman monster. Although it is true that she provides some context in certain parts of the book where it is helpful, on the whole I am mostly grateful that she wrote as little in the book as she did. Her closing section is particularly annoying, being in total context to much of the rest of the book. But on the whole I am glad that she has put this book together for publication. It is probably the most honest biography available on Osama bin Laden.