Deleted:Zaynab Khadr 2nd
Zaynab Khadr is a Canadian whose personal history has stirred controversy. She is the eldest child of Ahmed Said Khadr, a computer engineer who maintained he was a charity worker, prior to the US invasion of Afghanistan. US officials, on the other hand, characterized him as an al Qaeda financier.
Early life
Ahmed Said Khadr, an Egyptian national, moved to Canada to attend to attend University, eventually earning a Masters degree in Computer Science. While he was a student he met and married Maha Elsammah, the daughter of refugees from Palestine, and became a Canadian citizen. Zaynab and Abdullah were born while he was working as a computer engineer, in Canada. Her second brother, Abdurahman was born when her father was a Professor of Computer Science, in Bahrain.
Zaynab's parents traveled to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area, and volunteered for the charity Human Concern International. They ran orphanages, and training programs for war-widows, so they had a means to support themselves. During this time the family made regular visits back to Canada.
In 1995 Zaynab's father Ahmed leg was injured by a land mine. He maintained that in a region that had been a war zone being injured by a land mine did not indicate he himself had been playing a role in hostilities. He and his family returned to Canada while he tried to recover from his wound. In fact he never fully recovered, employing his eldest son Abdullah as his driver.
Some contemporary critics challenged his claims. They claimed he used fighters from a militant group as security guards for his projects.
Ahmed returned the family to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border when Zaynab was 15 years old. Michelle Shephard quotes Zaynab being unhappy at her father's plans to betroth her to an Egyptian named Khalid Abdullah. According to Shephard Zaynab said she felt too young to marry, and was unhappy to be expected to marry someone she didn't know.
Before the marriage occurred Khalid Abdullah was one of approximately twenty Egyptians Pakistani security officials held responsible for a suicide car-bombing at the Egyptian embassy in Pakistan. It turned out that Khalid Abdullah role included supplying a vehicle for the bombing from an orphanage Zaynab's father ran.
Zaynab's father asserted his future son in law had taken the vehicle without his knowledge or permission. Pakistani security officials nevertheless apprehended him and held, without charge, in a torture prison.
