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.
Abdul Ahad Mohmand
Mohmand was born on 1959 in Sardah, in the Ghazni Province of Afghanistan. He belongs to the Mohmand tribe of the Pushtun ethnic group. Mohmand graduated from the Polytechnical University of Kabul and then from the Air Force Academy. He served in the Afghan Air Force (AAF) and later trained in the Soviet Union as a pilot and a professional astronaut.