Carmen bin Laden (née Dufour; born 1954) is a Swiss author. She was a member of the

bin Laden family The Binladin family ( ar, عائلة بن لادن, ) is an Arab family intimately connected with the innermost circles of the House of Saud, Saudi royal family. It is the namesake and controlling shareholder of Saudi Binladin Group, a multinati ...

, having entered the family by marriage to

Yeslam bin Ladin Yeslam bin Muhammad bin 'Awad bin Laden ( ar, يسلم بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن; born October 19, 1950) better known as Yeslam bin Laden, also written Yeslam Binladin, as he prefers to spell it, is a businessman and the half-brother ...

, a son of the patriarch Muhammad bin Ladin; they have since divorced.

Biography

Early life

Carmen Dufour was born in 1954 in

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. Her father was

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

(Dufour) and her mother was

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

(Mirdokht-Sheybani). She was raised in Lausanne by her mother along with three other sisters (Salomé, Béatrice, and Magnolia).

Adult life

From 1974 to 1988, she was married to

, an older half-brother of

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...

. They were married in 1974 in

Jeddah Jeddah ( ), also spelled Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; ar, , Jidda, ), is a city in the Hejaz region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the country's commercial center. Established in the 6th century BC as a fishing village, Jeddah's pro ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

. They had three daughters,

Wafah Dufour Wafah Dufour (born Wafah bin Ladin, May 23, 1975) is an American singer-songwriter, socialite, and model. mirror Biography Wafah bin Ladin was born on May 23, 1975 (although some reports have given 1978 or 1980) in Los Angeles, Califor ...

, Najia and Noor. In 2004, she published ''Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia'', a personal account of her life as a

n wife and mother. The book contains insights into life in the bin Laden family and her relationship with them and her former husband. She claims that no matter how

westernized Westernization (or Westernisation), also Europeanisation or occidentalization (from the ''Occident''), is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in areas such as industry, technology, science, education, politics, econo ...

her ex-husband or other bin Laden family members may be, they still feel strong familial and religious ties, and would have financially supported and sheltered

if necessary, prior to his May 2011 death. She admits that while she found it difficult to adjust to the restrictive

n society, her lifestyle was one of privilege. She later moved to

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

with her then husband and three children, and finally left her husband in 1988, asking for a divorce in 1994. She alleges that her ex-husband engaged in emotional blackmail including threatening to kidnap her children, adultery, and forced her to undergo an

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

. She finally obtained a divorce 12 years later in January 2006.

is reportedly uninvolved and uninterested in the lives of his former wife and daughters. He is quoted in Carmen Dufour's book as saying that he wished he had sons and not daughters. Yeslam has obtained a

Swiss passport A Swiss passport is the passport issued to citizens of Switzerland to facilitate international travel. Beside serving as proof of Swiss citizenship, they facilitate the process of securing assistance from Swiss consular officials abroad. The ...

supposedly for the purpose of pursuing a relationship with his children. In her book, she writes that she had only seen Osama bin Laden on two occasions and that they did not really speak. She emphasizes that the

is a large one, and not all family members are directly associated with Osama bin Laden.

References

* Bin Laden, Carmen. ''Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia.'' Warner Books: New York, 2004.

External links

Powell's book page
{{DEFAULTSORT:bin Laden, Carmen 1954 births Living people Former Muslim critics of Islam Writers from Lausanne

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...

Swiss writers Swiss people of Iranian descent

Biography

Early life

Adult life

See also

References

External links