Carmen bin Laden lifts the lid on life in Osama's family

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/11/09/wbin09.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/11/09/ixportal.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=79154

A sister-in-law of the world's most wanted terrorist leader has described her life in Saudi Arabia as a "prison" and says that the young Osama bin Laden was so religiously zealous that he "froze" when he saw her face unveiled.

Carmen bin Laden, who is divorcing the al-Qa'eda leader's half-brother, Yeslam, said that even in the privacy of her home, Osama bin Laden "couldn't bear looking at my naked face. He never deigned to speak a word to me".

Mrs bin Laden, who was born in Switzerland, has lifted the lid on life in the bin Laden family and within a Saudi community in a book, In the Opaque Kingdom, to be published in Britain next month by Virago.

The book chronicles her marriage to Yeslam and her life in Jeddah, a city where, she says, "women are no more than house pets" and their "bright minds are brainwashed".

[shirlden]

1. Interesting

Her book should be worth a read by all who are trying to understand the culture of Islam.

[DUreader]

3. Who wrote the book? Maybe worth reading maybe not.

If it was written by the infant incubator PR firm, I'd skip it

[Ardee]

4. what is interesting,imo

is your implied insult to a billion or so muslims......

Judging the entire religion through the lens of a fundamentalist family is similar to judging christianity by the actions of extremist fundamental christians. What was this woman thinking to marry into a fundamentalist family in the first place?(hint: lots and lots of secular money)

In Iraq, and in other muslim nations, woman have been doctors, lawyers and have held political office. Only when extremists like the Taliban take over the reins of government do we see the demeaning of women and their being relegated to secondary roles in society.

Unless you have read the Qu'ran in total and understand that institutions like that which you demean are aberrations and distortions of that religion, such easy dismissal of all followers of Islam is simply bigotry and adoption of the wishes of those who seek to justify the wholesale slaughter of innocents by inferrring, incorrectly, that they are all fanatics.

[Wink]

5. Where's the insult?

Maybe I'm missing something here but I didn't see any insult to muslims.

[Ardee]

14. here you go:

Her book should be worth a read by all who are trying to understand the culture of Islam....

As I stated, judging a religion based only upon the most extreme practisioners of that religion is more than a bit stupid.

[No Passaran]

15. ok then let's start insulting muslims

I think the insult is that they're portraying the women like they're slaves and dogs which is not true. My family's muslim and maybe we were all just too liberal but women were always respected and (at least where we came from) when a person dies, on his grave we didn't put "Son of 'insert father's name here'. It was always First Name, Son of 'Mother's name', Last Name. Our women don't go around covering their faces anymore, but when they did (50 yrs ago), family members were allowed to see them like that (so Osama was just a hardcore extremist).

Bin Ladin's are too extremists to have someone judge the entire country, society and the Islam itself based on someone's living conditions in their house.

This woman married for money! Anyone can see that. Now it's time to cash in on her experience. Now what do you think would sell the book?

a) It was great living with all that money. I was not mistreated and was respected.
b) It was horrible living as a muslim. I was disrespected. Muslims are bad.

If you guessed a), then I gotta ask: What planet did you come from?

[belle]

9. Yeah, insight into Bin Laden is more accurate.

[Bridget Burke]

12. "The" culture of Islam?

There's more than one. Often, they overlap within one country.

Is there one Culture of Christianity?

[PsychoDad]

16. Islam is a religion...

The second largest on earth, covering many countries, including over 7 million in the US.
Islam is not the monolithic "culture" or religion that is portrayed by american media... In fact arabs comprise a minority in Islam. Islam is, in fact, a quiltwork of races, and cultures. Cultures and peoples ranging from america, to Ireland, to the far east.
There is a wide range of diversity amoung my brothers and sisters.

Salaams and Ramadan Mubarak to all

[Noordam]

2. fyi pic

[maxsolomon]

6. from this, osama sounds kind of gay

<young Osama bin Laden was so religiously zealous that he "froze" when he saw her face unveiled.

Carmen bin Laden, who is divorcing the al-Qa'eda leader's half-brother, Yeslam, said that even in the privacy of her home, Osama bin Laden "couldn't bear looking at my naked face. He never deigned to speak a word to me".>

i know he's married with kids and all, but it makes you wonder...

-half-joking alert-

[truthisfreedom]

7. sounds like maybe he was attracted to her, actually

i've had a deer-in-headlights look, in my teens, when seeing someone i liked. maybe something freudian going on with poor ol' osama.

[pink_poodle]

8. I think some times middle eastern men seem a tad "gay" in..........

the eyes of western people - they hold hands, seem a wee bit effette and women are kept out of pretty well all that they do - but having spent time working for a middle eastern family and seeing how they and their friends/associates are - they do treat western women in business differently than their own. Many times, this "softness" towards each other and amongst the men you see, is really just respect and fondness - many of them being related or friends all their lives. If he froze up from seeing her face, it was probably being aghast at her "disrespect" sort of thing. She married into this life. She should not have married into it unless she was really willing to live up to it.

[truthisfreedom]

10. i just don't think most of us are prepared to look at this monster with

any kind of empathy. whether or not he was responsible for the events of the 11th of september, 2001, he's certainly responsible for an enormous amount of death and dismemberment and grief.

his violent polarization using religious manipulation is one of the greatest crimes that can be committed against humanity.

[pink_poodle]

13. I don't even think this guy is alive! I'm just saying, that.......

if she has complaints, why now and why a book and why did she marry into this family, etc., etc., Methinks - money to be made????

[belle]

11. (sigh) Misogyny does not equal "gay."

As with much of American good ol' boy culture, the culture that Bin Laden belongs to (albeit his interpretation seems to be extreme even by their standards) is "homosocial." As in, there may well be homoerotic undercurrents, but openly gay men are at least as reviled as women, if not more. People like this, who bond over what they *don't* like rather than what they *do* like, are ultimately neither het nor gay, in other words. I believe the clincial term is "fucked up."

[Ernesto]

17. WTF

is all that crap @ the end of this thread?

[No Passaran]

19. lol

[loudnclear]

18. Osama sounds like Falwell looking at bare breasts.

You've seen one funndie, you]ve seen them all.

[bleedingheart]

20. More like Falwell looking at a plate of ribs...