No matter which part of the world you go to, the bin Laden name is enough to send ominous chills down the spine. When it comes to some of the most notorious terrorists in modern history, Osama bin Laden sits at the top of the list. Osama, the mastermind of the horrific 9/11 attacks, left behind more than just a bloodstained legacy, but also a broken family scattered across continents and entangled in secrecy, still hoping to reinvent themselves and not let the bin Laden name define their identity anymore.
Osama bin Laden, the former leader of al-Qaeda and one of the world’s most wanted terrorists, was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs on May 1, 2011, during a raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. While the terrorist leader’s death closed one notorious chapter of the infamous Islamist militant group’s tale, it also opened another: What happened to the women and children who shared his last moments? Where are the wives who watched him die, and the family that was bestowed a never-ending saga of exile and stigma?
The women in Osama’s Abbottabad compound