Al-Qaeda ‘s Ayman al-Zawahiri wife: Who Is Azza Ahmed?

Azza Ahmed was the first wife of Ayman Mohammed al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian-born physician and theologian who was the leader of terrorist group al-Qaeda from June 2011 until his death on July 31, 2022.

Zawahiri and Azza got married in 1978 and at the time, she was a student at Cairo University who was studying philosophy.

Their wedding, which was held at the plush Continental Hotel in Opera Square, was very conservative, with separate areas for both men and women. There was no music, photographs, or gaiety in general.

Many years later, when the United States attacked Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks in October 2001, Azza apparently had no idea that al-Zawahiri had supposedly been a jihadi emir (commander) for the last decade.

She was killed together with two of their six children, Mohammad and Aisha in the airstrike on Afghanistan by US forces in late December 2001, following the September 11 attacks on the U.S.

According to a report on the airstrike, after an American aerial bombardment of a Taliban-controlled building at Gardez, Azza was pinned under the debris of a guesthouse roof.

However, concerned for her modesty, she “refused to be excavated” because “men would see her face” and she died from her injuries the following day.

Her son, Mohammad, was also killed outright in the same house.

Her four-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, Aisha, had not been hurt by the bombing, but died from exposure in the cold night while Afghan rescuers tried to save Azza.