Family Background and Early Life
Yeslam bin Ladin is a Saudi national of Persian and Yemeni heritage (through his mother and father, respectively). He has 54 half brothers and half sisters, including 2 younger brothers (Ibrahim and Khalil), and a younger sister (Fawzia), by the same mother as him, Rabab Haguigui. They live in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. His father, Mohammed bin Laden, died when he was 17 years old.
He has lived in Switzerland since the mid-1980s, and became a Swiss citizen in April 2001. He speaks Arabic, English, French and Persian. He is a Sunni Muslim and is said to live a mainly Western lifestyle. An ex-girlfriend of his from 1993 to 2001, Catherine Berclaz (41 years old), is a Swiss interior decorator who wrote a book on their relationship, Yeslam, My Love: In the Heart of the Bin Laden Family.
He divorced his wife, Carmen bin Ladin, in January 2006, after 15 years of separation. Carmen bin Laden wrote an autobiography, Inside the Kingdom (ISBN 0-446-69488-6), which was a New York Times Bestseller, recounting her life in the Bin Laden family and how she managed to keep her daughters in her custody. He has three daughters, Wafah Dufour, Najia, and Noor, and has reportedly not spoken to them for more than 15 years because of their western customs. Wafah (Dufour) Binladin earned a law degree from Geneva University, and a masters degree from Colombia Law School in New-York. In 2006 she appeared in a men's magazine GQ. She has lived New-York and now in London.
After attending high school in Beirut, Lebanon, Bin Ladin studied economics at Göteborg University, Sweden, and business administration at USC. On February 25, 2005, he was granted permission by the Swiss government to use the name bin Ladin to brand products for his business including a perfume for men and women dubbed "Yeslam," and a second one for women "Passion," and other goods such as handbags, accessories, and watches under the name "Yeslam." Shops opened in Geneva (1), in Jeddah (2), in Riyadh (1), in Mecca, in Damman (1) (Saudi Arabia) and in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). He engaged Creators and chose the creations, but he is not Designer. He has a pilot's license, like his father, and owns a Learjet.
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