by HABIBA HAMID
One of the first things my mother did was recognize the talents of a teacher who grew to become one of our closest family friends. Aisha Abdullah is a tall, African American convert to Islam with a heavy southern drawl. Her stoicism and imposing calm got her appointed as headmistress in a Manarat school in Jeddah, where she ran a tight ship.
Dilettantes threatened her career and played the race card like it was going out of fashion. But she would have none of it. She wasn’t chosen for her political savvy or ability to pander to a brash set of royals. But Mrs. Aisha, as many still refer to her even after all these years, could and did face down and discipline scores of spoilt children.
Manarat sought to demolish ideas of wealth, class, race and nationality in an egalitarian project which mixed expatriates from Africa, Asia and Europe with Saudi nationals, with classes in both English and Arabic. Schools across Saudi Arabia, from Al-Khobar to Jeddah, were built from the ground up with white-washed walls and cool marble floors. The daughters of laborers were taught alongside royals irrespective of race, class and wealth.
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