3-year-old Tsarnaev Daughter Faces Rough Road

Suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a hail of bullets at MIT a week ago, and we’ve now learned that the 26-year-old man left behind a 3-year-old daughter with wife Katherine Russell Tsarnaev.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s 3-year-old daughter Zahara was not mentioned in the immediate media frenzy that followed the Boston Marathon bombings as well as the tense standoff at MIT in which the elder suspect was killed. (Images of his bloodied body soon appeared on the internet.)

After younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured in Watertown, press heat turned to the elder Tsarnaev’s wife. Much was made of her conversion to Islam and decision to wear a hijab, and the media speculated over the 24-year-old American woman’s relationship with the deceased suspect.

The site HollywoodLife spoke to Dr. Gilda Carle, who further delved into why she believes Russell may have stayed with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and the challenges the 3-year-old Tsarnaev daughter will face growing up with an infamous father after his death.

Carle seems to think Russell felt committed to the suspect because she became pregnant and speculates:

“Katherine Russell fell for Tamerlan, became pregnant, and obviously thought there was no way out. So she swallowed the bullet, married him, and converted to his religion, obviously believing that this is the way to keep a guy.”

The therapist continues:

“However, it is not. Nothing suited him, and whenever a glimpse of self began to rise, she got into screaming matches with him, within earshot of the neighbors. But he had temper tantrums, throwing things, including furniture, at her.”

Carle also said:

“Like any abused wife, she stayed because she feared that there was no other way out. Eventually, abused women are so emotionally beaten down, they forget that they ever had any self-esteem. When her friends from school and even her family saw her a few years later, they were shocked.”

She concludes: “I shudder at the thought of how their daughter will grow up, with a scared mother and no father.”

Do you think a 3-year-old Tsarnaev daughter has a chance at a normal life?