Osama bin Laden's niece has a pop dream
A niece of Osama bin Laden is launching a career as a pop singer.
Waffa Binladin, whose father is the brother of the world's most wanted man, hopes to release a single by the end of the year.
She has been working on a demo tape since she moved from New York to London six months ago.
Binladin, 26, has been dreaming of becoming a pop star since someone told her she had the looks and voice of a star.
She has left her Muslim background behind and adapted herself to Western culture. She drinks alcohol, smokes cigarettes and wears mini-skirts. She even changed the spelling of her last name to the more Western "Binladin".
But still music producers are scared by her surname and refuse to work with her. Britain's Observer newspaper quoted a US musician as saying that "in trying to start a pop career, only one surname was worse than hers, and that was Hitler".
Binladin studied to be a lawyer in the US. She had distanced herself from her uncle long before the September 11 terrorist attacks.
"The girls are in a very difficult position. We have had no contact with that family for over 10 years. We thought about changing the name but then people would think we had something to hide," said Carmen bin Laden, Waffa's mother.
