The world's media have struggled to find out about Osama bin Laden's personal life. Now a London magazine, Al-Majallah, has scooped them all by tracking and interviewing one of his wife identified only as AS.
She agreed to talk but laid down several conditions. For security reasons, she did not want to be photographed or have her location revealed.
AS spoke calmly and confidently. She lives in a modest house and acts unpretentiously. Following is the text of the interview:
Nasr: First of all, how was your life with Osama?
AS: During my life with him, he used sometimes to come home late at night and lie down alone on his bed for long hours. He did not like anybody to talk to him.
He became angry if I tried to talk to him and I would therefore leave him alone. He used to sit and think for a long time and sleep very late. He did not sleep for more than two or three hours. Though he was beside me, I sometimes felt lonely. During the last period, he was constantly worried and looked tired and exhausted due to lack of sleep, to the extent that most days he was taking medicine and sleeping pills to help him go to sleep.
Nasr: Did you live with his other wives in one house? How did he treat you and them?
AS: No, we did not live in one house. Each wife lived in her own house. There were two wives in Kandahar, each with her own house. The third wife had a house in Kabul, and the fourth in the Tora Bora mountains.
He used to come to me once a week. His wives met only once every month or two when he came to us or sent one of his sons to take us to the house of one of us. We met most often in the house of Umm-Awad. He always warned me against going into town alone and used to say that if I needed anything I could send one of the children to buy what I wanted.
During the last period, he used to speak less to me and I used to spend my time at home, because he prevented me from going outside and used to say that if I went out, harm might come to me. At a later stage, he used to come to me only once every two or three weeks and say he was busy, had some problems, and was in constant meetings with Mullah Omar and the Taliban leaders. Even when he wanted to travel to another area, he did not tell anybody, contrary to the past, when he used to take one of us with him when he travelled.
Nasr: How was the house that you lived in and what kind of food did Osama like?
AS: My house was a very modest one that looked like a simple village house. As for food, Osama liked bread, yoghurt, honey and dates. He rarely eats meat.
Nasr: When he prevented you from going out, was he concerned about you from, for example, the Taliban men?
AS: He told me one time that he was very worried and feared that the Taliban men might turn against him and seek to get rid of him and that the United States might pay one of them money to get rid of him. He also told me he had some differences with Mullah Omar and the Taliban leaders and that they were trying to harass him because they probably did not want him to continue to live with them any more.
Nasr: Who were the closest people to him?
AS: He always used to talk about Mullah Omar, Sulayman Abu-Ghayth [al-Qaida's official spokesman] and Abu-Hafs [an alias for Mohamed Atef, Bin Laden's friend and military planner, killed by US bombing in Afghanistan], and say they have determination and patience. He used to take one of them with him most of the time whenever he wanted to travel.
Nasr: Did he have heavy protection?
AS: He had a large group of soldiers, tribesmen and young Arab mojahedin, and a number of vehicles that he travelled in with them.
Nasr: Did Osama speak to you about his intention to attack the United States?
AS: He did not talk about this at all. He used to talk about America's hegemony and its cooperation with Israel. He always told me that he had a big plan and that he had dedicated himself to confronting them. He used to tell me that the United States was humiliating the Arabs and that he had a large group of young mojahedin who hated the United States and were willing to fight jihad against it.
Nasr: How did Osama reply to the US accusations that he was behind the bombing of its embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam?
AS: I heard him say more than once that the United States is his first enemy, that it is trying to throw its problems and what is happening to it on to our region, that it is pursuing him, trying to kill him and to get rid of him. He said the United States deserves this and even more and that some youths have been guided by God to teach America a lesson.
Nasr: Did you ever ask him whether he was behind these attacks?
AS: No.
Nasr: Why?
AS: He did not like to talk to me about these issues. He was angry with me when I tried to ask him, and told me not to discuss these matters with him ever again.
Nasr: How did he divide his time between his houses, his businesses and the al- Qaida organisation?
AS: He used to come home once a week. He managed his commercial businesses most of the time with a group of employees.
Nasr: In what business fields was he involved?
AS: Trade and construction. He always spoke about his companies that were doing building and roadworks with a large group of charities that were helping the poor and needy among the Afghan people.
Nasr: When was the last time you saw Osama and how was the meeting?
AS: The last time I saw him was before the September events. He came to the house, gave me a telephone and told me to call my family and tell them we were going somewhere else and that there would be no news of me for a long time.
Nasr: Did he tell you about the place you were going to? Did you actually call your family?
AS: Yes, I called my mother and told her that. But he did not tell me where we were going. He prepared a vehicle and ordered me to go with one of his sons and some escorts to an area in the south near the border with Pakistan, which I did not know before. We arrived in the house of a tribesman.
Several days later, we heard about the explosions in the United States and that the latter had declared war on Osama and the Taliban. When the US bombing of Afghanistan started, we moved to a mountainous area with some children and lived in one of the caves for two months until one of his sons came with a group of tribesmen and took us with them. I did not know that we were going to Pakistan until they handed us over to the Pakistani government.
Nasr: Is it true that Osama had kidney pains and suffered from kidney failure?
AS: He always suffered from kidney and stomach pains. He told me once that he was going to Pakistan for treatment.
Nasr: When did he tell you this?
AS: Nearly two months before the September events.
Nasr: Has Osama contacted you from your departure from Afghanistan to this day?
AS: He has not contacted me at all.
Nasr: Do you believe he was killed?
AS: I feel deep inside me that he is still alive. If he had been killed then the entire world would have known about it because Osama's death is not something that can be concealed.
Nasr: If Osama were still alive, where would he be now? Did he possibly leave Afghanistan?
AS: He never spoke to me about his intention to leave Afghanistan and always wished to die there. He told me once that if he ever left Afghanistan it would be to meet his Creator.
Nasr: Did he have any particular hobbies?
AS: Hunting. He used to hunt with a group of friends on Fridays.
Nasr: Do you regret marrying Osama because, in the world's view, he has become a terrorist?
AS: I do not feel regret because everything is willed by fate and divine decree. I do not think he is a terrorist as the west is depicting him.
Nasr: You have sons from Osama bin Laden. How do you view their future?
AS: I will teach them righteousness and the divine path. I am not worried about them because we accept what is written and fated by God Almighty. We cannot repel what is willed by fate and divine decree.
Nasr: If Osama bin Laden does appear again and asks you to return to Afghanistan, or wherever he is, will you agree?
AS: Let us wait and see what happens.
Nasr: When the Taliban banned schools and kept the religious ones only, did Osama's children study? What did they study?
AS: They had private tutors who taught them the English and Arabic languages, mathematics and sciences. They also trained them to use the computer.
** Reprinted by kind permission of Al-Majallah magazine. ** Translation by BBC Monitoring. BBC Monitoring selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.
** Interviewer : Khalid Nasr
** About this article : Interview with one of Osama bin Laden's wives. This article was first published on guardian.co.uk at 01.39 GMT on Friday 15 March 2002. It appeared in the Guardian on Friday 15 March 2002 on p4 of the Comment & features section. It was last updated at 01.39 GMT on Friday 15 March 2002.
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