"Walt, I can't believe that you talked me into this," Catherine Hazem said, and the tall, curvaceous young Coptic Christian woman looked at the big Christmas Tree located the center of the Saint Laurent Shopping Center, and grinned. Catherine's lover Walter Duchene snapped up a pic of Catherine wearing the Santa Hat and Elf outfit, and winked at her. Catherine, who was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt, practiced a different brand of Christianity than most Canadians, but this was no reason not to get into the holiday spirit as far as Walter was concerned.
"Merry Christmas, to my favorite Elf," Walter said, and he pulled his arm around Catherine, and whisked her away. Catherine rolled her eyes, pretending to be annoyed. They walked around the Saint Laurent Mall, among the throngs of shoppers. Due to Covid, a lot of places were in danger of closing, and Ottawa's busiest mall seemed to be one of them. Holiday shoppers were making the most of it while some of their favorite spots were still open. Welcome to the new normal.
When Catherine Hazem came to the City of Ottawa, Ontario, she felt like a fish out of water. Catherine was born in Egypt to a Coptic Christian family. She came to Ottawa to study civil engineering at Carleton University. Whenever Catherine met Canadians and told them she was from Egypt, they expected her to be a Muslim. In fact, some of them even queried about Catherine's lack of a Hijab. Apparently, folks in North America knew nothing about the sizable population of Arab Christians spread across the Middle East. It's a pity, really...
Catherine's parents, Michel and Nadine Hazem, were poor, but they wanted to see her go far. Catherine excelled at her classes at Saint Guillaume Academy back in Cairo, and learned to speak English and French as well as Arabic. Catherine originally intended to study at Cairo University, but upon learning of an international scholarship which would sponsor Arab students and send them to the Capital of Canada, she applied for it. Indeed, that's how Catherine ended up at Carleton University in Ottawa.
Catherine has always felt out of place, and she felt this way long before she came to Ottawa. As a tall, dark-haired and bronze-skinned young Arab Christian with model looks, and a sharp tongue, Catherine stood out in her hometown of Cairo, Egypt. A lot of young men were drawn to Catherine for her beauty, but most of these young men were Muslim, and Catherine was quite serious about her Christian faith. For Catherine, dating or marrying Muslim men was out of the question.
In Egyptian society, religion determines everything. For example, Egyptian Christian men cannot serve in the Egyptian military. Egyptian Christians are treated like second class citizens by the Egyptian Muslim majority. Catherine thought that this was the norm, until she visited the City of Beirut, Lebanon, with her parents a while ago. In Lebanon, Arab Christians have power and respect. In Egypt, since the Christians rarely fight back, the Muslims treat them like shit and it seems to be the norm.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Arab Muslims and Arab Christians clashed across Lebanon, and both groups have grown to respect each other's power. In Lebanon, the government is set up so that the Lebanese Christians and the Lebanese Muslims have their representatives, and that the needs of both communities are met. Catherine found this utterly fascinating. Catherine wished that Egyptian Christians would emulate their kindred in Lebanon, but that's wishful thinking...
