Call me Ayaan, if you would, please. I see a lot of Muslims shortening or simplifying their names to please Westerners, and I shake my head at such a trend. If your name is Mohammed, donāt let some punk with a last name like Williamson or OāConnell call you Mo, either at work or at home or anywhere else. Make them respect enough to say your name properly. Cultural relativity states that if I seem strange to you, then you must seem equally strange to me. Alright? Cool.
My parents, Ali and Afaf Osman moved to Ontario, Canada, from Somaliland in the third summer of my life. I donāt really remember Somaliland but it is and shall always be home. I was born of that land and itās in my blood until the day I die. I grew up in the City of Ottawa, also known as the town that fun forgot. Whoever decided to overlook major metropolitan areas like Montreal, Calgary and Toronto and make Ottawa our capital must have been drunk at the time. Thatās okay, though. Some of us do our best thinking while drunk.
Anyhow, I recently moved to Kanata, and I honestly hate the place with a fiery passion. The West end of Ottawa lacks diversity, and I swear the OC Transpo bus drivers in the area are so racist itās not even funny. They just donāt like people of color, especially us Africans. As a young Black woman who wears the hijab, I attract a lot of stares. Not much I can do about it. I am proud of my Somali heritage and my Muslim faith. If some racist white person is made uncomfortable by that, well, theyāll just have to get over it.
Itās summertime, and after finishing my third year at Carleton University, I decided to get myself my own place. Renting a one-bedroom spot from an old white lady in Kanata. I wonder what I was thinking when I clicked on that ad on the Kijiji website. I saw that the room was furnished, and only cost four hundred a month, with a free parking spot. Thatās great, except I donāt drive. The U-pass, issued by my school, isnāt valid during the summer months. That means that Iām going to have to buy a ninety-eight-dollar bus pass from OC Transpo at the start of May. Man that sucks!
I work as a security guard and lately, the company I work for hasnāt been calling me for shifts. I donāt think my scheduler likes me because a lot of my co-workers, male and female, get shifts and I get them once in a blue moon. I am not the type of person who automatically plays the race or religion card but I notice that at certain jobs, you donāt see a lot of women wearing the hijab. Iāve seen Arab women and Somali women working at places like CIBC, CRA and Parliament, but they were attired in western clothing, with their hair flowing freely. Why doesnāt that surprise me?