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.
My mother told me a lot of things about her old life in Somaliland. The brutal things that Somali men did to Somali women in the name of Islamist patriarchal domination. And Somali women simply went along with it because they didn't know any better. My mother raised me to be a strong woman and told me to never submit to any man's will. Men were nothing without women. Islam taught men that women were inferior creatures. Two things mattered to me more than anything, my feminist identity and my faith in Christianity. It's the best religion out there if you're a woman. Trust me on that one. All others treat womankind like shit. Many Muslim women will tell you different, please don't believe them. They are so brainwashed they've convinced themselves that the things that are done to them are fine and just. Female circumcision, honor killings, and religiously justifiable spousal battering are NOT okay in the twenty-first century.
When my parents sent me to study in the Province of Ontario, Canada, I was initially apprehensive. I wanted to study at the Eritrea Institute of Technology and become a civil engineer like my mother before me. Sadly, this wasn't meant to be. It appeared that my destiny lay elsewhere. I didn't want to leave my beloved State of Eritrea. I wanted to stay and help my country develop. Still, I knew that Canada might afford me opportunities that other young men and women living in the State of Eritrea might never get so I seized the moment, so to speak. Thus I set out on an adventure to the continent of North America. Just a young Black woman with a dream. It was a journey which would forever change my life.
In Ontario, Canada, I discovered a brand new world. One that I could only imagine, once upon a time. I enrolled at Ryerson University as an international student and fell in love with campus life and the City of Toronto itself. I made lots of friends from all over. So many beautiful and intelligent young women from around the world. I had crushes on a few of them. My friend Eva is from Florence, Italy. My buddy Jasmine is from Wales, Australia. My good friend Henrietta is from Kano, Nigeria. Yeah, Ryerson University was a racially and culturally diverse school. One of the best in North America. It's at that school that I met the man who changed my life forever. The tall, handsome and cocky but infuriatingly charming Solomon Al-Rashid. The love of my life.
