Hamida al-Attas

Who is Hamida al-Attas?

Hamida al-Attas, born Alia Ghanem, is the mother of Osama bin Laden. She came from a Syrian family of two brothers and another sister. She married Mohammed bin Laden in Latakia in 1956 and moved to Saudi Arabia with her husband. She was the tenth wife of Mohammed bin Laden. It has been reported that she was a concubine rather than wife of Mohammed bin Laden. She was more cosmopolitan than Mohammed's first three Wahhabi Saudi wives.

Osama bin Laden was her only child with Mohammad bin Laden. She often spent summers at her brother Naji's home in Latakia and Osama went with her until he was 17. In 1974, when Osama was 18, he married her brother's daughter, 14-year-old Najwa Ghanem, who had been promised to him.

Hamida later married Mohammed al-Attas and had 4 other children, including Ahmad Mohammed.