Ladies and gentlemen, the discoveries we make about our significant others quite often change the way we feel about them. Sometimes, that can actually be a good thing. Yesterday I discovered something in my boyfriend Solomon Al-Rashid's apartment which forever changed my opinion of him. I've always thought of men from the African and Arab worlds as macho, dominant and not terribly concerned with women's rights. It's as much a cultural thing as it is a religious norm over there.
To be Middle-Eastern or Sub-Saharan African is to believe in patriarchy and male domination. That's the predominant attitude down there. Christian or Muslim, men from those parts of the world aren't too advanced when it comes to their views of women. I found myself drawn to such men partly because the feminist in me saw them as the ultimate challenge. And in Solomon Al-Rashid, I thought I had found a worthy challenge indeed. I'm the kind of woman who likes to tame a macho man, bring him to his knees and show him who's the fucking boss. Especially handsome and cocky men like Solomon who are clearly used to getting their way.
Solomon Al-Rashid was born in the town of Baalbek, Republic of Lebanon, to a Nigerian Catholic mother and Lebanese Christian father. His parents moved to the City of Toronto, Province of Ontario, a decade after his birth. I met Solomon at Ryerson University and found myself immediately drawn to him. He was six feet two inches tall, well-built and handsome, with light brown skin, curly Black hair and hazel eyes. With a last name like Al-Rashid, I thought he was a Muslim for sure and was surprised to discover that he was a Christian. I didn't know much about the Republic of Lebanon until I met Solomon and had no idea that forty percent of the Lebanese population, including the President of Lebanon, was Christian. How about that? Arab Christians in the Middle East. Wow. I thought they existed only in the Coptic communities of Egypt.
CNN did a documentary on the plight of Coptic Christians in Egypt as the Islamist parties came to power after the Arab Spring. Poor bastards. Sometimes I wish the United Nations and the European Union would open their eyes and realize that in many Muslim nations, Christians and other religious minorities were hounded daily. Too often we hear about Muslims in our mainly Christian and deeply progressive Western societies fighting for their rights even though for the most part, they're treated fairly. By sharp contrast Christians in Muslim societies got the shaft. Does that seem fair to you? Sorry to go all political on you, but I am a political science major after all.
Oh, silly me. It seems that in all of the excitement I forgot to properly introduce myself. My name is Mariam Berhane and I was born and raised in the City of Mendefera in the Debub region of the State of Eritrea. My father, Abraham Berhane is a Pastor with the Eritrean Orthodox Church as well as the Chief of Police in our hometown of Mendefera. I love my dad. It's where my personal strength and love of firearms come from. My mother Fatima Dawit is a Somali national who moved to Eritrea while fleeing persecution in her old homeland and converted to Christianity after finally moving to a land where religious freedom is the law.
