It is unlikely to be available in the mountains of Pakistan. But should Osama bin Laden ever emerge from his hiding place, he might do worse than to freshen up with a new brand of family perfume.
Osama’s lesser-known half-brother Yeslam has just launched his own brand of scent.
Entitled simply Yeslam rather than Bin Laden, the perfume will soon be available in Europe and possibly even in the United States.
”My scent is more flowery. It reminds me of memories of my childhood in Saudi Arabia,” Bin Laden told Switzerland’s Facts magazine last week. Asked if he had contemplated calling it Bin Laden instead, he replied: ”That would have been clumsy.”
A wealthy businessman, Yeslam bin Laden has not seen his notorious half-brother since 1981. He has lived in Switzerland for the past two decades, and acquired Swiss citizenship in May 2001, just before the September 11 attacks. Bin Laden said he was confident people would buy the perfume, which costs $103 a bottle.
The original idea to market it under the Bin Laden family name was dropped after 9/11, he added. ”I could not use Bin Laden any more and Yeslam is a rare name. It means bliss, although there is no single translation,” he said.
After Osama, Yeslam is probably the best-known member of the huge Bin Laden clan, largely thanks to an unflattering memoir written by his former wife, Carmen, published last year.
In the book, The Veiled Kingdom, Mrs Bin Laden describes her experience of living with her in-laws in Saudi Arabia as oppressive.
She also describes her ex-husband as ”always a Saudi” despite his nationality. He was ”self-centred, arrogant, and dismissive”, she writes. – Guardian Unlimited Â