Zawahiri's wife praises women for role in uprisings, predicts an "Islamic Spring"

Al-Qaeda’s media arm, al-Fajr, released a letter from leader Ayman al-Zawahiri’s wife, Umayma, praising women across the region for their leading role in the recent uprisings, as both mothers and caretakers of revolutionaries and as participants and victims of violence. 

Cover of Umayma's letter

“Much of what happened was something we had wished, pleaded, and called for, for decades, but unfortunately, only few had responded,” she wrote.  “But today, the balance has tipped—with the grace of God—and things have changed.”

Umayma wrote she wished he participated in the uprisings and singled out Egyptian women’s courage in the face of regime-sponsored violence.

She noted the political gains made by Islamists, including in Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco, and said the Arab Spring would turn into an “Islamic Spring” and lead to the “liberation of Jerusalem.”

“We will have a new Islamic state based on shariah arbitration, and we will free Palestine and build a state of succession to the prophecy,” she said. 

She asked women to continue wearing the veil at school and work.  “The veil is the identity of the Muslim woman,” she said.  “The West wants to tear off this identity so that the Muslim woman would be without her identity, and then everything else would be trivialized.”

The letter’s authenticity could not be independently verified.

Al-Qaeda’s influence has been largely marginalized after the uprisings that began in late 2010 and resulted in the overthrow of various autocratic governments across the region.  The uprisings, while violent at times, were characterized by nonviolent protests, wide popular support, and the demands that political freedom and social justice be realized. 

In a year, the uprisings were able to do what al-Qaeda had been attempting for decades—the overthrow of “tyrant criminals,” according to Umayma—while rejecting the group’s violent tactics and extremist ideology.  The letter is the latest in a series of attempts by al-Qaeda to capitalize on the uprisings.

Al-Zawahiri became al-Qaeda’s leader after Osama bin Laden was killed by United States Special Forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan last May.  The letter was released shortly after al-Qaeda’s second in command, Abu Yahya al-Libi, was reportedly killed in a drone strike in Pakistan in earlier this week.