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On October 1, 2011, the jihadi website Shumoukh Al-Islam published an article titled "Paragons of Glory: Some Details from the Biographies of the Wives of Hakim Al-Ummah ['Sage of the Muslim Nation'] Ayman Al-Zawahiri," by Abu 'Abd Al-Qadir Al-Qimri, who is described as a historian and researcher of Islam. The article presents brief biographies of Al-Zawahiri's three wives. It focuses on his first wife and the mother of six of his children, Umm Muhammad, who was killed in 2001 in an airstrike along with her only son and her youngest daughter. Umm Muhammad is described as a pious woman who gave up a life of comfort to live as a mujahida among the fighters in Afghanistan. The article notes that her daughters also married mujahideen, two of whom have since been martyred.
The two other wives, Umm Khaled and Umm Tasnim, were widows of mujahideen; Umm Tasnim was in fact widowed twice before marrying Al-Zawahiri, and her sons were also killed on the battlefields of jihad. Umm Khaled is described as a role model for the wives of the mujahideen, and it is noted that she wrote a message to Muslim women, which was distributed by Al-Qaeda's media company Al-Sahab.
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