As Salam Alaikum, dear reader. My name is Afaf Hussein and I'm a Saudi Arabian woman living in the City of Dammam, Saudi Arabia. I was born on August 14, 1981. In 2001, I went to live in the United Kingdom, and studied at Brunel University, where I earned a Master's degree in computer science. I returned to Saudi Arabia in 2005, and married Mahmoud Hussein, a long-time friend of my family's, and life has been the purest of hell for me ever since.
This isn't easy for me to say, but I cannot hide this much longer. I know that when the truth is discovered, my life will be forfeit. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the punishment for marital infidelity is death. Still, when love comes, what soul can truly resist its allure? I am a human being and I need to be loved. Even if I must perish for dreaming of it.
From the first time I laid eyes on Samuel Stephens, I knew that the six-foot-tall, handsome young Black man was different. We have a lot of Africans in Saudi Arabia but Samuel was different. The blacks I was used to dealing with are a servile bunch, mostly Somalis and other Northeast African Muslims. I'm sad to say that they're used to being treated like second-class citizens in most places within Saudi Arabian society.
We Saudis aren't on anyone's list when it comes to human rights, that's for sure. Arab hospitality is a legendary thing, which many cultures respect us for, but inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the rules are different. Even Arabs from places like Yemen, Lebanon and Syria find us hard to deal with because of all the strict rules governing behavior for men and women in Saudi Arabian society. We're the world's most conservative nation, and that makes us a breed apart, even among our fellow Arabs.
It's a mark of prestige among Saudi businessmen to have friends from places like Europe or America. My husband Mahmoud has entertained a lot of foreign businessmen at our villa on the outskirts of Dammam. When he told me that we would be hosting an American, I was nonplussed. Americans aren't exactly uncommon in Saudi Arabia. Everyone knows they want our oil!
Our new houseguest was something else, though. Samuel Stephens walked around like a prince, and spoke to people as if he didn't care who they were regardless of their race or station in life. I became fascinated with him, this handsome young man of color who walked like a lion. Born in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, to a white American mother and a Jamaican immigrant father, Samuel studied civil engineering at Northeastern University and learned Arabic while vacationing in Dubai with some Lebanese friends.
The young African-American businessman became fascinated with the Middle East, and at some point while in Dubai Samuel Stephens met my husband Mahmoud Hussein, impressed the hell out of him, and they became business partners as well as friends. When I met Samuel, my heart skipped a beat but I played it cool. Although my heart thundered in my chest, I acted nonchalant.
After all, I am a prim and proper Saudi Arabian wife. I know how to stay cool. Life in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is taxing on a woman with its many restrictions and draconian rules, so keeping a cool head while dealing with cruel and controlling men is a must for us Saudi ladies. It was obvious to me that my husband Mahmoud was quite taken with Samuel.