Farouk Alharbi, heir of the House of Alharbi, husband to Noor Alzahrani-Alharbi, father to newborn twins Amir and Amina, and the newly minted Minister of International Education at the Royal Court of Saudi Arabia, can definitely be considered a fortunate son. Born in the City of Dammam, Saudi Arabia, to a wealthy Saudi Arabian Muslim father, Omar Alharbi, and a Senegalese mother, Aziza Camara, a woman whose intellect and beauty won the Sultanate heir's heart, Farouk Alharbi was unique from the start, and destined for glory.
Standing six feet one inch tall, broad-shouldered, a bit chubby, with light brown skin and thick, curly dark hair styled in an Afro, Farouk Alharbi is roughly handsome and as the son of a wealthy family, his pursuit of pleasure has turned him into something of a hedonist. Perfect understandable since Farouk has a wealthy father who wanted him to be prepared for life in a tough, complex country like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That's how Farouk ended up at Carleton University in the Capital region of Canada.
"My son, I want you to study at this fine Canadian school and enjoy yourself while learning, because when you come back to Saudi Arabia, life will be quite hard for you," Omar "Baba" Alharbi said to his only son as the two of them stood in front of the University Center Building at Carleton University on orientation day. The place was packed with students and parents, but even in this diverse crowd, the men of House Alharbi stood out...
"Baba, I thank you for this opportunity, and I won't let you down," Farouk said, and then he hugged his father fiercely. The thought of being granted the opportunity to study abroad thrilled Farouk immensely. Finally, he was going to see the world and experience it on his own. Growing up in a moneyed, secluded sector of metropolitan Dammam in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia, there were things which even his father's wealth couldn't shield Farouk from.
"Wallahi, no father ever had a better son," Omar Alharbi said to his smiling son Farouk, a couple of days later, as they stood in the waiting area of the Ottawa International Airport. Father and son exchanged a hug, then Omar Alharbi boarded the plane, and Farouk went to hang out at the Rideau Shopping Center, with his father's latest gift, a Mastercard worth three grand, in his pocket.
The patriarch of House Alharbi began his flight to Europe. From there, he would fly to his homeland of Saudi Arabia, where matters of state awaited. The House of Alharbi had always been a prominent one in the tumultuous history of Saudi Arabia. Long before the men and women of the House of Saud and their European allies created the Saudi state, the venerable House of Alharbi's men and women were known for their honor, their strength and their fierce allegiance to Islam. Today, thanks to the treachery of some of the royals, Omar Alharbi found himself fighting for everything he held dear.
Omar Alharbi's parents, Ismail and Yasmina Alharbi, pureblood Saudis, did not approve of his marriage to Aziza Camara, the beautiful Senegalese Muslim woman he met while studying mechanical engineering at Oxford University in the 1980s. nevertheless, Omar brought Aziza to Saudi Arabia and married her, and a son was born to them, Farouk. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a strict Arabian nation where almost ten percent of the population is of African descent, racism is an open secret.
Until 1962, indentured servitude and virtual slavery was part of life in Saudi Arabia. The Arabs owned Africans, and treated them like little more than chattel. When slavery became outlawed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the early 1960s, Afro-Saudis gained numerous freedoms but were still treated like second-class citizens. Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab world had never experienced a Civil Rights Movement, so even though the blacks were no longer slaves in the Middle East, they continued to hold negative views of them...
"Farouk, your father may be wealthy but you are the son of an African woman, you will never rise to power," said one of Farouk's playmates, a Saudi lad named Adnan, one day while the two were playing. Omar, who sat nearby smoking a cigarette while the two young men played soccer, was horrified to hear this. Immediately Omar chastised Adnan for his words, but the deed was done. Farouk looked at his father with tears in his eyes, and Omar didn't know what to say to his only son...
"Baba, why was Adnan mean to me?" Farouk asked, and Omar Alharbi looked at his son and reassured him that Adnan was just a stupid fool who would never be allowed to enter the vast Alharbi estate again. This was presumably Farouk's first brush with racism, something that Omar Alharbi tried to shield him from, especially after the death of his mother Aziza Camara.
"Farouk, you are a prince among savages, never forget that," Omar Alharbi said to Farouk, who smiled. In that moment, Omar swore to himself that he would see to it that his son rose to power and became a great man. That's why, when Farouk turned eighteen, in the summer of 2011, Omar Alharbi sent him to study at Carleton University in the City of Ottawa, Ontario. Farouk graduated from Carleton University with his computer science degree in 2015. The prodigal son of House Alharbi returned to the City of Dammam, triumphant at last...
"My son, I am so proud of you, we must get you married now," Omar Alharbi said as he embraced his son Farouk, who held his Carleton University degree in his hand. Father and son went to the House of Alharbi, and Omar summoned his clerics, and began seeking a bride for his son. The House of Alharbi is a noble house, whose net worth was estimated at twenty million U.S. dollars. In his time, Omar Alharbi had met the royals of Monaco, the Queen of England, and various American billionaires. For a man of such power, finding a bride for his only son oughtn't be a challenge...
The only problem is that while Farouk Alharbi is young, wealthy, and educated, he is nevertheless the son of a Saudi Arabian father and an African Muslim mother. Through the blood of his African mother, he is considered African and not Arab. Even if his father Omar Alharbi gave him Saudi citizenship and named him heir of his house. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, whose complex racial politics were still in the stone age, this made Farouk of House Alharbi an exception with a capital E. Arab racism against people of African descent is no joke.
Indeed, when Omar Alharbi was a young man, many Arabs spoke ill of Anwar Al-Sadat, the Afro-Egyptian politician who ruled Egypt from 1970 to 1981. The fact that Anwar Al-Sadat married a beautiful Arab woman named Jehan Sadat and made her First Lady of Egypt also irked many Arabs, since they did not like to see men of African descent with their precious Arab daughters.
