My name is Lorena Elisabeth Rosenthal, and I'm a young woman living in the City of Ottawa, Ontario. I was born in the City of Tel Aviv in the State of Israel. My family moved to the Confederation of Canada about eleven years ago. I am twenty two years old and attend Carleton University, where I major in Criminal Law. I was raised Jewish, and for most of my life I practiced the tenets of Judaism. A year ago, my life changed profoundly. I met a handsome young man named Mohammed Youssef. The son of a Somali immigrant father and Saudi Arabian mother, he was born in the City of Mecca deep inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and raised in the City of Boston, Massachusetts. Way down in the States. He moved with his family to the region of Ontario, Canada, a while ago. I had a lot of misconceptions about Islam and people from North Africa in general but Mohammed opened my eyes...and my heart.
The first time I saw Mohammed, I was smitten with him. He's six-foot-three, lean and muscular, with light brown skin and curly Black hair. We met while I was giving a tour to the new students at Carleton University. I'm a volunteer with the Student Life Office. Mohammed is a recent transfer from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It's the only coeducational school in the deeply conservative Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A place where women are allowed to drive and wear western clothing. The only one of its kind in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I thought all Arab guys were vicious bastards who oppressed women and blamed it on their antique religion. Mohammed changed my mind about that.
Actually, Mohammed changed my mind about a lot of things. He's a truly remarkable young man. His Somali-born father Ahmed Youssef is a Harvard University graduate who holds dual Somali and American citizenship. As for Mohammed's mother Fatuma Al-Bayh, she's a six-foot-tall, regal lady of pure Saudi Arabian lineage. Fatuma surprised me, to tell you the truth. This Saudi lady who was educated at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, and Oxford University in the United Kingdom definitely didn't fit the stereotype of the undereducated and deeply submissive Muslim woman. For starters, she is a professor of business at the University of Ottawa. And she holds dual American/Saudi citizenship. The Canadian government invited the Youssef family to leave their home in Boston, Massachusetts, to work for them. Mohammed's father Ahmed Youssef was once the United States ambassador to the Republic of Ethiopia. Wow. Did I mention that they're multi-millionaires? Yeah, I was amazed. They definitely weren't what I was expecting!