Osama Bin Laden's Matchmaker: Real Housewives of Abbottabad
May 10, 2011 — -- The Yemeni cleric who helped arrange Osama bin Laden's fifth marriage said that the world's most wanted man had only one stipulation for his youngest wife: that she be of high moral value.
The cleric, Sheikh Rashad, told ABC News he helped arrange 54-year-old bin Laden's marriage to Yemeni 29-year-old Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah when the girl was just a teen. During the marriage, Rashad said Fatah never complained and never made the al Qaeda leader upset.
Manal Omar, author of "Barefoot in Baghdad" and expert on the role of women in Islam, said that Fatah, along with the other two older wives also discovered in bin Laden's compound, would be called to do almost anything bin Laden wanted.
"Fulfilling the desires of the male leader or husband in the family is a very important duty for women," Omar said.
It was no surprise to Rashad that Fatah apparently tried to defend bin Laden to the last, rushing the Navy SEALs before she was shot in the leg in the same room where bin Laden was killed. As a Muslim woman, she wanted to die a martyr, Rashad said.
READ: The Young Wife Who Defended Osama Bin Laden
U.S. investigators have been promised access to bin Laden's three wives who are currently in Pakistani custody, one U.S. official said, and they hope to learn from the them key details about life with bin Laden in the Abbottabad compound.
But Imam Omar Saleem Abu Namous of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York said it's possible U.S. intelligence could learn much more than details of bin Laden's day-to-day life in Abbottabad.
"I think Osama bin Laden maybe was intelligent enough or smart enough to give each wife a duty to do," Namous said.
READ: Pakistan to Give U.S. Access to Bin Laden Widows, Official Says
Um Khalid, meaning the mother of Khalid, and Um Hamza, the mother of Hamza, are both from Saudi Arabia and have been described as highly educated and apparently content with sharing a husband.
"Women clearly are attracted to the message of Osama and to have the opportunity to be within his family would be appealing, even for some of the educated women," Omar said.
ABC News' Desiree Adib contributed to this report.
