Response to Questions

Submitted by Jordana Ghannam Ahmed, Egypt, May 31, 2018 at 22:48

Well okay first of all, it's hard to generalize and really give any useful advice to such general questions, I'm afraid. Yes I happen to be married myself to an Egyptian man, happily and for many years with four children, etc. but everyone's circumstances are unique and my marriage can not be used as the "poster marriage" or reference for all potential marriages to mena men (or Egyptians in particular) Bc no one relationship can prove anything for all other would-be relationships. This is across the board, not just in regards to this specific set of circumstances. You wouldn't ask those questions of anyone to gauge a relationship with a man from your own country of origin lol. Basically each and every situation and relationship must be able to stand on its own two feet, it must withstand the bulls$@t tests, it must be genuine in its own right. If you are having to ask these questions for reassurance or justification, that would be a caution flag right there. Just Bc my own marriage is happy and healthy I don't use that as an point of reference to encourage other people's individual relationship scenarios as that would be foolish and irresponsible. The fact is, there are many good Egyptian men out there you aren't likely to meet them online unfortunately or under most of the circumstances in which most western women tend to meet them, and they typically have very traditional, respectful. and old fashioned values towards dating and relationships. There is also the sad fact that Egypt had a rather large and disproportionate amount of unscrupulous low rent men who are "in it to win it" and simply have a number of many bad intentions when going into relationships with western women, and that is a fact that although embarrassing and shameful to the legit and genuine Egyptian populous, cannot and should not be ignored or denied. The best advice I can give you is not to answer anything specific in regards to Egyptians in general but rather that each situation must be judged on its merits and flaws from a completely objective and realistic perspective. Do not be ruled by raw emotions or lust etc. however hard this may be. If you ended up here or are having doubts about your relationship, that's your first sign I hate to say it but it is true. Odds are not favorable to mena men OR women being with western men or women especially when we are talking about long distance, different religions cultures, values, gender roles, and so forth. I am always happy to give my two cents from my perspective (I am syrian and palestinian-american, my dad was a refugee who received asylum in 1984 and I was born in 1985 in Minneapolis where I grew up; my four brothers have grown up in Israel/the West Bank, Syria and the USA, and i am married to an Egyptian from Cairo and currently reside in Maadi, Cairo and are moving into a new home-hopefully to be completed construction soon lol-in the MN twin cities area, I am Muslim, but grew up in a cross-religious but very devout home, I was raised very traditionally but still in the USA so I have a unique experience to say the least lol) and hoped that was somewhat helpful albeit nonspecific ;)

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".