Mohamed Atta
Atta was born on September 1, 1968, in Kafr el-Sheikh, located in Egypt's Nile Delta region. His father, Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta, was a lawyer, educated in both sharia and civil law. His mother, Bouthayna Mohamed Mustapha Sheraqi, came from a wealthy farming and trading family and was also educated. Bouthayna and Mohamed married when she was 14, via an arranged marriage. The family had few relatives on the father's side and kept a distance from Bouthayna's family. In-laws characterized Atta's father as "austere, strict, and private," and neighbors considered the family reclusive. Atta was the only son; he had two older sisters who are both well-educated and successful in their careers — one as a medical doctor and the other as a professor.
Mohamed Said Samatar
He was born in Wardheer, in 1933 (officially on September 5, 1928) a town in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. While very young, he participated in the fight for his country's independence. In 1947 he joined the Somali Youth League, a movement opposing the British occupation. After attending normal school, he became an elementary teacher, then worked for BBC Somali and Radio Mogadishu and, in 1958, went to Rome, where he was placed in charge of RAI's Africa and Somali Service (Italian Radio Broadcasting and Television Company) broadcasts to Africa. While in Rome, he studied political science at the university of level.