I am writing this now because the incident happened recently, however I am going to schedule it to post at a later date because I don’t want word to get around…

It is my first day at work, and one of my supervisors calls me into her office. “The dean wants to interview you, please have a seat until then” she says. She’s a very kind lady, probably in her late 40s. She really makes me feel comfortable, and is making an effort to get to know me while we are waiting for the dean to call. (Because the dean is a male, all interviews and conversations will be done over the phone.)

She is so excited to hear that I am a muslim, and she invites me to join her and another coworker on a trip to Mecca, the holy city for Muslims. Then she asks me how I found Islam. I tell her it is a long story, she agrees she still wants to hear it, and I proceed to tell her. Halfway through it appears she is no longer paying attention, but I didn’t want to call attention to it is it was my first day, so I keep telling the story. She gets up, shut and locks the door, and sits back down and asks me “Sister are you looking to get married to a muslim man”

I was very stunned, but I answered “yes” as I have no intention on marrying outside my faith. She then leans at me from across her desk and very seriously says “I am speaking to you now as a friend not a coworker, so don’t tell anyone here what I am saying. I have a nephew, he’s about your age, he has a very good job, he has been to USA and likes it there. He is a good muslim man and we would like to marry him to someone. He is from Jordan, so he isn’t very strict like the people here. Are you interested?”

“Well, I mean I don’t really know what to say I….”

“Well of course these things take time, and you’d have to live in Jordan, but now it’s just talking to see how it goes no pressure lets just see okay.”

She proceeds to take her phone and call him. They talk in Arabic and the conversation abruptly stops. She looks at me and says “He wants to talk to you. Is that fine.” Wallah I could have died right there in her office I was so embarrassed. He and I agreed to add each other on facebook and talk later, as we were both at work.

Later that day I had to go in her office, and she invited me to sit down again. She begins to tell me that women in Jordan don’t have to work if they do not want to, and that the husband provides everything for the wife. She talks about how happy I’d be living there with them, and then she says something that made me laugh a little bit. “Oh, I really hope he will not say naughty things to you.” Of course that was a little bit of a red flag too, because why would you set me up with a “naughty guy?”

Either way, it was a really awkward yet adorable and hilarious situation.