The Story of An Egyptian American

Hello to all readers! My name is Alex Wang, and I was part of the Section One class of the Introduction to the Modern Middle East course at Rutgers University with Professor Mohammed Ezzeldin. When I sought out to complete this Digital Media Assignment, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I began contacting a few of my old friends from high school, and eventually, someone came to mind: an old friend of mine named Rehana Said. I contacted her and she enthusiastically agreed, and what came out of it was more than the assignment that I sought after. It was a deep, rich story of her childhood and how her Middle Eastern background shaped her. It was a piece of her life that she had given to me, and today I will sharing that with you. This is the Story of An Egyptian American.

Rehana Said was born in Saudi Arabia as one of five silbings

Meeting up with an old friend

Rehana was born in Saudi Arabia, as one of five siblings. Besides being American, when people ask about her background, the answer that comes out most often is Egyptian. Although she was born in Saudi Arabia, it is typical in the Middle East for the child to get the citizenship of their parents. Therefore, it was an interesting phenomenon when she answered that she did not exactly know deep into her family’s historical background, as she and society had always considered herself Egyptian.

Growing up, her life was very family-oriented, and she participated in activities like swimming, dancing, etc. after school and during her free time. One of the most interesting parts of her story was when she mentioned how diverse her childhood was. As Americans, we see ourselves as the melting pot of different cultures, however Rehana tells me how she was more exposed to other cultures in Saudi Arabia than in America, something that I found especially eye-opening. For one thing, she describes how television in Saudi Arabia consistently showed programs from other countries, such as American television and Japanese television. In addition, her friendship group was very diverse, with friends from Palestine, Sudan, Jordan, Indian, Syria, among other places, who now live all over the world in areas such as Canada, Egypt, Turkey, Malaysia, Jordan, Russia, etc. She lived in an apartment complex, and the door was always open to others, something that I notice is not very common in modern America.

A baby photo of Rehana

Rehana is the first dancer from the left.

While describing things that she did for fun, she explained how a lot of activities happened at night due to the hot weather, whether it be going to the park, or going to malls with friends or family that were open until two to three in the morning. Her brother’s XBox attracted a lot of attention from other children from the same floor, and watching soccer was often something that brought people together that occurred after midnight. To go along with the happy tone, her fondest memory from her childhood was going after school to visit her family in Egypt and exchanging gifts, often staying in Egypt for a month and a half at a time. This part of her story related to me personally, as I am also very close to my family and her trips to Egypt reminded me of my trips to Taiwan to see my family and staying for around the same timeframe as Rehana would in Egypt.

I knew that her childhood had shaped her into the positive individual that she was today, however, there were also some quite sentimental moments as well. One of them was learning about racism when she moved to America at approximately thirteen years old. Personally, Rehana never thought too deep of her religion growing up, and didn’t start wearing a hijab until middle school. She recalls praying five times a day in school along with all the other students, however never questioned any of the religious practices. It was not until she moved to America that she had learned about the definition of racism, and related it back to some things that she had seen during her early years in Saudi Arabia, particularly to how South Asians were mistreated by native Saudis. She also began to realize what it was that she experienced, when grown men would harass her as a young girl based on her background. After coming to America and going to a mosque of mostly South Asians, she began to connect the dots, and realized how mistreated some people were just because of their background back in Saudi Arabia. In terms of herself and following her religion, it strengthened when she came to America, and it was when she started learning the importance of her religious practices. She described to me a time when a teenage girl questioned Rehana about her hijab, and called it “sexist,” which led to me asking her that based on her experiences up until now, if experiences like these ruined her childhood, and if Muslim women needed saving. Perhaps testament to Rehana’s positivity, she answered no to both questions.

Rehana was very into her story, and told it with passion.

Overall, those bad experiences did not ruin her childhood, as her childhood was still diverse and she still had fond memories with her friends and family. However, she would not go back to Saudi Arabia, as she is now aware of how some people were mistreated there due to racism, and as she stresses, if a person is American, he/she is American and is protected, no matter their background. When asked if Muslim women needed saving, she had a clear stance: No. She immediately responded with an admirable passion, and described that it assumed that women couldn’t stand up for themselves, and she describes how women in Saudi have their own strong voices and are not afraid to demand for greater rights. She describes how Western intervention should be avoided in these areas regarding gender, and passionately exclaims how Western powers who feel the need to intervene “don’t even know what I’m going through.” She then proceeded to tell me that they need to be solved within the country itself with the lead of women activists. She explains that women can save themselves unless they ask for it, and that Western intervention only creates more problems (which in my opinion, after taking this course I must agree with). She gives me an example of women being able to drive, and how some women need it, but others don’t want it and are happy with personal drivers. An interesting point that she made was that if all women started driving, that would create a higher demand for cars, and tons of jobs would be lost for people who work as personal drivers. Furthermore, she tells a story that she heard from one of her classes at Rutgers about the workers of Bangladesh factories, who despite harsh conditions, were content with their lives since they were escaping from bigger problems. She follows up theses two examples by saying that we need to know the perspectives of native people, and that the solution is not always to stop certain things, but to improve them. She also expands on this by explaining that there is more to a problem than the perspective that is typically portrayed by mass media, and when one problem is solved, often another arises which we ignore. In her opinion (and mine), we should let people who live in the country deal with their problems because they have more knowledge of their own living conditions than any outsider does, and will ask for help is needed. She gave a tremendous explanation for a topic that can be seen as sensitive, and it is one of my favorite parts of the story that Rehana shared with me.

When all was said and done and she had finished telling me the amazing story of her early life, I asked her how her childhood shaped her. It was perhaps the answer that I was most looking forward to. After thinking about it for a few minutes, she proceeded to say, “I don’t know.” In my opinion, it shaped her into the person she is today: a positive individual who improves the atmosphere around her, and has a rich history stored within her mind. As I walked toward her before the interview and spoke, I didn’t know what would happen next. All I can say is, that it defied my expectations.