Umme-Daishat
KANDAHAR: With rumors swirling about Mullah Omar’s possible death from diarrhea in Pakistan, Umme Al-Daishat, the Taliban leader’s mother, said she is “worried sick” about her son and wished that he would send “some sort of sign” that he is alive.
“I can’t sleep at night not knowing where he is,” said Umme Al-Daishat, clutching a framed second-grade school portrait of Mullah Omar in the living room of her Kandahar home.
“He could be dead in a ditch somewhere and I would have no idea,” Umme Al-Daishat added.
The fact that Taliban has not staged a major attack in over a year, coupled with the new rumors of Mullah Omar’s death, have increased Umme Al-Daishat’s anxiety over the whereabouts and welfare of her son.
“It’s like he disappeared off the face of the earth with his irritating motorbike,” Umme Al-Daishat said. “All I ever see of him is the occasional grainy videotape, and he looks so skinny, I’d hardly recognize my own son if it weren’t verified by the CIA. I just hope he’s taking care of himself.”
Saying “it’s a mother’s right” to know her child’s whereabouts, Umme Al-Daishat admitted the only time her mind is put at ease is when her son occasionally checks in with acts of terror such as bombings in Pakistan. “I wish [Omar] would understand the pain he causes me, the worry,” Umme Al-Daishat said. “Doesn’t he know that his actions can affect others?”
“For his dear mother’s sake, I wish he’d carry out an attack,” Umme Al-Daishat continued. “Just so I know he’s all right.”
One eyed monster Mullah Omar
Instead, Umme Al-Daishat said she is left to torment herself with dozens of conceivable scenarios of Mullah Omar’s fate. “What if an elite group of Delta Force assassins ambushed him in a remote Pakistani mountain pass?” said Umme Al-Daishat, wringing her hands at her kitchen table. “What if some unscrupulous local informant revealed his hidden location? What if he slept in one of those dirty hotel comforters I saw on the news that are covered in germs? No mother should have to go through this with her son.”
Even if Mullah Omar is alive, his “neglectful” appearance gives Umme Al-Daishat no less reason to worry about his state. “If I know my Omar, his [cave] is a shambles,” said Umme Al-Daishat, who noted that his beard was “getting a little out of hand” in the last photos she saw of him, and that his fatigues and Afghan-style headdress “didn’t look warm enough.” “When he’s on his own, he doesn’t look after himself properly. I can’t tell you how many times his father and I have gotten on him about that. But I guess he’s always been stubborn.”
“It’s only because I love him so much,” she added.
Admitting that Mullah Omar was no longer “the nice boy who’d come home from Darul Uloom Haqqania all eager to tell me about his day,” Umme Al-Daishat said she regretted the fact that he has not been a part of the extended family in so long. “Since he never gets to the yearly reunions, I bet he doesn’t even know that his 14th half-sister just had a baby,” Umme Al-Daishat said. “His younger cousins would love to spend some time with him, but they wouldn’t even know what he looked like if it wasn’t for all those hazy one-eyed propaganda posters.”
Although Umme Al-Daishat said she realizes Mullah Omar is busy, and understands his line of work requires focus and constant travel, the fretful mother said, “I just wish he would pick up a phone every once in a while” between meetings to let her know he is all right.
“My friends tell me that he’s a big boy, and that he can take care of himself,” Umme Al-Daishat said. “But it’s all I can do not to rush out and scour the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan myself.”
“He could be Allah knows where doing Allah knows what,” she added.
Umme Al-Daishat has even contemplated releasing a videotape of her own urging Mullah Omar to let her know he’s alive, and to tell her whether he is wearing the mukluks she sent him in 2002.
But whatever trouble he may be in, Umme Al-Daishat said she hoped Mullah Omar knew that he would “always be my baby” and that “he can always come home.”
“I can’t imagine a world without him,” Umme Al-Daishat added. PID