Maha Elsamnah

.

Early life

and compromised by wearing a scarf over her hair.

Graduating in 1977, Elsamnah volunteered as a camp counsellor at Camp Al-Mu-Mee-Neen near Creemore, Ontario. There she met Ahmed Said Khadr, a friend of the camp founder, a University of Ottawa student who had come to Canada two years earlier. She was impressed by his calmness and thought he was a good listener. The camp's director later described their meeting as "love at first sight".

They married in November, at Jami Mosque in Toronto. In May 1978, the couple moved to Ottawa so Ahmed could finish his studies. In 1979, Maha gave birth to Zaynab.

Family

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In January 1988, Maha returned to Toronto with Omar to look after Ibrahim so her parents could visit relatives in the Middle East. He became sick, and was rushed to Centenary Hospital and admitted to the ICU. Brain death was declared the following morning, and Maha consented to having him removed from life support. The next day she bathed the corpse, dressed it in white and brought it to Jami Mosque for her brother to arrange burial arrangements while she booked a next-day flight back to Peshawar.

Accused of helping to finance terrorism, Elsamnah was listed as the joint director of her husband's "Health and Education Project International" charity. [Farah, Joseph. World Net Daily, " [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=15119 Family of Canadian teen has extensive al-Qaeda ties] ", September 6 2002]

When Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub immigrated to Canada on December 30 1995, he claims that it was his wife, Mona el-Fouli, who was friends with Elsamnah, and how he consequently ended up living with her parents for three weeks while he found himself an apartment.CSIS interview of Mahjoub, October 5 1998, p. 2, para. 6.]

The family fled Kabul the day before its fall to the Northern Alliance, and made a temporary home in the Lowgar orphanage the night of November 10. Maha and Ahmed returned however to gather their possessions. While packing, Kabul's walkie-talkie communications ring began reporting that the Taliban had been defeated and the city was being overrun. Running out to their car, they saw wounded men filtering into the streets. Tossing out their computer and a chair, the couple made room in their backseat for three men who had been injured in an explosion. They reached the Lowgar Hospital at 2am, but were told that only two of the men could be treated. Speeding off with the third, they continued to another nearby hospital but arrived to find their passenger had succumbed to his wounds. Returning to their children at the Lowgar orphanage, they were informed that Abdurahman had decided to return to Kabul and spend the night with friends.

In 2003, following the capture of Omar and the departure of Ahmed with Abdulkareem, Elsamnah took her daughter and granddaughter to a house in Birmal, Pakistan for two days, before their hosts grew wary of American jets overhead, and they moved further into the mountains of Waziristan.McGirk, Jan. The Independent, [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/married-to-the-jihad-the-lonely-world-of-alqaidas-wives-567789.html The lonely world of al-Qaeda's wives] , April 4]

Return and later interviews

After a series of difficulties obtaining one-way "emergency travel documents", Elsamnah flew back to Canada with Abdulkareem on April 9 2004, greeted by a throng of reporters and government agents at Pearson Airport. [Yahoo news, "Two members of family that has been linked to al-Qaida return to Canada", April 9 2004] [CBC, [http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2004/04/09/khadr_20040409.html Khadr mother, brother arrive in Canada] , April 9 2004] Elsamnah and her daughter Zaynab are both on passport "control" lists, meaning they will no longer be issued Canadian passports due to the frequency with which they reported losing their passports since 1999. [Shephard, Michelle and Tonda MacCharles. Toronto Star, "Shadow of CSIS will follow Khadr", December 3 2003]

In 2004, Elsamnah appeared in a documentary entitled Son of al Qaeda;

Most news stories arising from the documentary stated only that Elsamnah believed that raising her children in Canada would cause them to be homosexual drug addicts, solidifying Canadian public sentiment against the family.Shephard, Michelle, The Guardian, " [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/19/guantanamo.humanrights This week, a 16-year old boy was seen crying for his mother] ", July 19 2008]

References

External links

* [http://www.thekhadrlegacy.com/ The Khadr Legacy] , a website maintained by the family