Meet Aisha Elmi, a young Muslim woman living in the City of Ottawa, Ontario. Aisha was born in La Belle Province, to a Somali Muslim immigrant father, Ahmad Elmi, and a white Canadian mother, Alexandra Dauphin. The Elmi family had a tough life living in the sometimes harsh environs of Quebec City, but it made them resilient. As for Aisha, her difficult upbringing made her tough and wise beyond her years, attributes which would serve her well in life.
Aisha opted to study at Carleton University instead of La Cite Collegiale or the Universite Du Quebec because she's honestly had enough of all things French for a while. In Quebec, there's a lot of tension between racial minorities and white Canadians, and the latter don't hold their tongue when it comes to voicing their dislike of those different from themselves. Canada is a beautiful but fairly passive-aggressive nation. Quebec, however, is brutally honest...
Aisha found herself liking the City of Ottawa, Ontario, for it was quite different from Quebec City. There were lots of Africans, Arabs, Latinos and other minority groups in Ottawa, so Aisha felt like she actually stood a chance of blending in. In Quebec City, Aisha got stared at everywhere she went, and folks would spit on the ground when they saw her black father and white mother holding hands. For this and many other reasons, Aisha decided to get the fuck out of Quebec for a while...
The Carleton University campus, while not as large as, say, the University of Toronto or York University, was actually quite nice. At least, that's what Aisha thought. The young biracial woman was walking around the University Center Building one morning in early September when she was approached by a tall, dark-skinned, athletic young woman with a bright smile.
"Hello, sister, I'm Stephanie, I'm with the Women's Center, you should check us out," the tall gal said as she introduced herself and subsequently handed Aisha a flyer. Aisha looked at the flyer, which advertised the gains made by the Women's Center after years of activism on the Carleton University campus. Truth be told, Aisha wasn't much of a feminist, and considered some of their more vocal and controversial celebrity members, like Rose McGowan, to be something of a hypocrite.
"Not really my scene, but I'll give this a look-see," Aisha replied, and that's when the friendly smile on Stephanie's face vanished. The other woman then launched into a lengthy tirade about women's rights and how the hesitation which modern young women felt about feminism was akin to a betrayal and all that Jazz. What did I get myself into? Aisha wondered, staring at Stephanie, feeling quite dumbfounded.
"Aisha, we're not what you think, check us out sometime," Stephanie said, and Aisha nodded before wishing the Pushy Broad a good day and walking away. As Aisha, campus newcomer and first-year student walked away, Stephanie Duchene, second-year student and resident know-it-all gave her the once-over. This cutie is socially clueless but has a nice ass, I can work with that, Stephanie thought, grinning.
From that day forward, Stephanie made it her mission to look for Aisha, whom she discovered liked hanging out at the campus library. Aisha was studying Criminology and that major included lots of research and writing assignments. Stephanie, a civil engineering major, preferred chilling at the Minto Center on the other side of campus. Still, wherever Aisha went, that's where Stephanie showed up.
Stephanie doesn't consider what she does to be stalking or anything even remotely creepy. Lesbian demographics work against me, Stephanie told herself, as she scoured the Carleton University campus for Aisha. There were lots of pretty girls on campus but most of them liked guys and would have boyfriends by the end of the semester. This left the die-hard lesbians, most of whom didn't measure up to Stephanie's standards.
