Bin Laden Wife: 'I Want to Be Martyred With You'

Amal al-Sadah was determined to stay with al-Qaeda leader
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted May 12, 2011 11:11 AM CDT
Osama bin Laden Wife Amal al-Sadah: 'I Want to Be Martyred With You'
Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sadah.   (7694jamal)

Osama bin Laden's youngest wife, who was injured when she rushed the Navy SEALs during the raid on his compound, proved her loyalty to the al-Qaeda leader early on in their marriage. A year after the 1999 union, he told his wives they could leave Afghanistan and return home, but Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sadah told him, "I want to be martyred with you and I won't leave as long as you're alive." Her family recalls this and other details of the couple's marriage in an interview with the AP. Al-Sadah, now 29, was determined to rise above the social standing of her divorced mother and often told friends and family she wanted to "go down in history."

The religiously conservative high school dropout saw bin Laden's proposal as "destiny from God." After al-Sadah gave birth to daughter Safiya, her family visited her in Afghanistan—though for security reasons, they had to spend 20 days in Pakistan before driving hours into Afghanistan to an underground passageway that led them to another car that took them to bin Laden's cave. Al-Sadah reportedly told her father, "It's true that my life is one of moving between caves in Afghanistan, but despite the bitterness of this life ... I'm comfortable with Osama." Click to read about al-Sadah's "perfect match" with bin Laden. (More Amal al-Sadah stories.)

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