Meet Osama's daughter-in-law

The difference lies in the surname of the man Jane Felix-Browne married: Omar Osama bin Laden, fourth son of the Al Qaeda chief who has been on the run since the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States.

'I hope people don't judge me too harshly,' Felix-Browne is quoted in The Times, London, as saying. 'I married the son, not the father.'

'I hope that people will take a step back and think what it was like when they fell in love. He is the most beautiful person I have ever met. His heart is pure, he is pious, quiet, a true gentleman, and he is my best friend.'

Felix-Browne was undergoing treatment in Egypt for multiple sclerosis last September, when the romance kicked off. She is quoted as saying Omar bin Laden fell in love with her after seeing her riding a horse near the Pyramids.

The two were married, per Islamic rites, in Egypt and then in Saudi Arabia, and are currently awaiting permission from the authorities in Riyadh to make it official.

It is not easy, she says, being the son and daughter-in-law of the most wanted man in the Western world. 'Omar is wary of everyone. He is constantly watching people who he feels might be following him,' she says. 'But when we are together he forgets his life.'

The new-minted bride reckons the romance was fated to be. She had earlier married a Saudi national, in London, at age 16 and believes she might have even met her future father-in-law at a party in London sometime in the 1970s.

The Times

Though media reports at the time suggested that Omar split from his father following the 9/11 attacks, Felix-Browne says her husband left Afghanistan before September 2001.

'He last saw his father in 2000 when they were both in Afghanistan,' she told the Times. 'He left his father because he did not feel it was right to fight or to be in an army. Omar was training to be a soldier and he was only 19.'

'He told me he has had no contact with his father since the day he left him. He misses his father. Omar doesn't know if it was his father who was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. I don't think we will ever know.'

Felix-Browne, a parish councillor in Moulton village, has three sons and five grandchildren. Following her wedding, she uses the Islamic name Zaina Mohammad.

Omar, the fourth of 17 reported children fathered by Osama bin Laden, is a Jeddah-based scrap metal dealer who, thanks to his father's reputation, is ostracised by the rest of the bin Laden clan, and is under constant surveillance by Saudi officials.

He has one wife and child; Felix-Browne says she spoke to the other Mrs Omar bin Laden on telephone, and the two are 'okay' with the shared relationship.

She now hopes her husband will come and live in Britain; as a couple, she said, they had hopes and plans to try and heal the wounds caused by her father-in-law.

'All we want in this world is peace,' she says.