Growing Up Bin Laden By Najwa Bin Laden, Omar Bin Laden

११ सप्टेंबर, २००१ रोजी आजपर्यंतच्या सर्वात मोठ्या दहशतवादी हल्ल्यात अमेरिकेत चार प्रवासी विमानांचे अपहरण करून ती अमेरिकन लक्ष्यांवर आदळवतात. त्या पैकी दोन विमाने वल्र्ड ट्रेड सेंटरच्या गगनचुंबी इमारतींना धडक देतात आणि त्या कोसळतात हे जगभर प्रसारित झालेले दृश्य कोणीच विसरू शकत नाही. तीन एक हजार निरपराध लोक जीव गमावतात. त्या वेळेपासून दहशतवाद हा शब्द उच्चारताच प्रथम एकच चेहरा डोळ्यांसमोर येतो, ओसामा बिन लादेन! हा इतका कट्टर दहशतवादी बनला कसा हे कळणे अवघड होते; कारण अत्यंत धनाढ्य अशा कुटुंबात त्याचा जन्म झाला होता. पण आता त्याला ओळखणारे त्याच्या कुटुंबामधले कुणीही त्याच्याबद्दल बोलायला तोंड उघडायलाच तयार नव्हते. आणि मग खरे तर आश्चर्यच घडले, ओसामाची पहिली पत्नी नज्वा आणि त्यांचा चौथा मुलगा ओमर यांनी बोलण्याची तयारी दर्शवली. कट्टर धर्मवेडा, दहशतवादी, स्वत:च्या मुलांनीही आत्मघातकी हल्लेखोर बनावे अशी आशा बाळगणा-या ओसामा बिन लादेनच्या व्यक्तिमत्त्वाचे वेगळेच पैलू उलगडले. त्यांनी सांगितलेली चित्तवेधक कथा म्हणजेच ग्रोर्इंग अप बिन लादेन! Osama bin Laden is the western world’s most wanted terrorist. Intent on secrecy at all costs, his personal life has been shrouded in mystery — until now. For the first time, Osama first wife and fourth son break the silence to reveal the truth about the character and life of a man both feared and revered around the globe. Osama married his first cousin Najwa when he was just 17. Here she describes the quiet, serious young man she fell in love with, who would take her from a life of extraordinary wealth in Saudi Arabia to a remote mountaintop in Afghanistan. As his senior wife, she would bear him eleven children and watch him become ever stricter, until his growing fanaticism tore the family apart. Their son, Omar, gives a detailed account of his childhood, vying for his father’s love in a household of more than 20 brothers and sisters — and a youth spent learning desert survival skills and handling Kalashnikovs. Here we see Osama the authoritarian husband and stern father, the entrepreneur, and the leader of a complex terrorist network. Together, in gripping detail, mother and son reveal their life on the run — forced to flee from country to country in response to Osama’s increasingly militant activities — until their eventual escape from Afghanistan just before the tragic events of 9/11 that would change the world forever. Never before has Osama’s own family gone beyond the headlines to show us Osama the man. Now, with unprecedented access, and complete with exclusive family photographs, Jean Sasson, author of the bestselling Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia, takes us inside the secret world of Osama bin Laden.