Back in the 70’s a Muslim man tried to seduce my mother. He was the most charming, loving, attention-giving man she’d ever met. He wanted to marry her and take her back to Iran. (They were both students in college at the time.) He promised her that I’d have the best schools and that he’d love me like his own.
She almost fell for it, too.
So she started hanging out with the other Muslim women in the community. All of them were there with their husbands while the men went to college on a student visa.
The women started talking about how wonderful it was in America. How their husbands behaved here and how all of the mens’ behavior was an act. How different it was ‘at home’. These passing comments were brushed off. We were having the time of our lives as part of a community. My mother was falling in love with Muhammad.
Then my mother saw the thing that sent her running. It was time for another couple to go home. The night before, there was a huge celebration. The men and children had a wonderful time.
But the women spent the night holding and comforting the wife in the back of the apartment. And *that* is when the details of the dress, lack of women’s parental rights and the beatings came out. This woman did NOT want to go back. This was the night that my mother was told that Muhammad would take me from her once we got there and there would be nothing she could do about it. (Anyone who tells you that Iran was an enlightened, Western nation in the late ‘70’s is ill-informed.)
When these men set out to capture a woman, they are straight-up seducers. They are charming. They are everything that a woman could want in a man. Young women see this behavior, feel loved, fall in love, and cannot believe anything bad about these men.
Read, “Not without my daughter.” That book raised the hair on the back of my neck. It so perfectly illustrates how these men seduce Western women.
Sorry. I misremembered. His name was not Muhammad. It was Mushari.
It was more than 30 years ago. :-|
Something very similar almost happened to a friend’s mother. What saved her was that he beat her up prior to them leaving America. She ended up enlisting in the air force as she was terrified of him and he was terrified of the military