The Turkish Engineer

A few weeks ago I invited an Iraqi friend and former co-worker to join Friendster. He was about to participate in HI5, a popular social networking site in the Arab world, but said that he was more interested in meeting Western women. I encouraged him to join Friendster instead, and showed him how to set up his profile.

I checked on his profile a few days ago, and noticed that very little of the information was accurate. It said that he was a Turkish engineer, not an Iraqi doctor. None of the women on the site would want to date an Iraqi, he said. If he were a Kuwaiti or hailed from a similarly wealthy country then he would be honest.

I told him that there were plenty of reasons he should say he's Iraqi, and be proud. Few women on the site have any opportunities to meet real Iraqis or Arab men. And he has plenty of selling points in his own right. How many men on the site have performed hundreds of successful appendectomies under possibly the most brutal dictator of the 21st Century? Could women find candid, funny assessments of life in Baghdad from a first-hand experience anywhere else? He said that he would change his profile and put a picture, which he said he was reluctant to do.

I hope that all my female friends reading this will click through to his profile, drop him a note, and add him as a friend. He can whoop your ass in ping pong, too.