Osama bin Laden’s son Omar displays his paintings in Franc

Omar bin Laden, the son of former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed by US Special Forces in Pakistan in 2011, devoted himself to drawing during periods of home quarantine

His paintings are the centerpiece of an exhibition currently taking place in France, amid increasing demand for his work around the world.

Omar says, “We used to spend our time during the quarantine period inside the house without doing anything important.”

“My wife was drawing and I felt the need to try to do this activity,” he added.

He adds in his low voice, “I learned to draw based on videos I watched on YouTube… and I loved this art.”

Most of the displayed paintings, the largest of which are no more than 60×80 centimeters in size, reflect the memories of Omar bin Laden’s childhood and adolescence.

“I miss the fun times I had, the times when I was too young to know and too innocent to see the world around me,” he says, tellingly. “I miss the vast stretches of desert dunes and rolling seas. I miss the peace of childhood.”

Osama bin Laden‘s son spent the first years of his life in his hometown of Saudi Arabia.

He said “We moved to live with my father in Sudan when I was ten years old, before we left ‘four years later’ for Afghanistan,” .

These two countries feature strongly in the work of Omar bin Laden.