No.
Aren't you Mr. Adel Fattah?
No. I'm Abdel Fattah.
Having a rare Arabic name
All my life I have encountered difficulty in introducing myself to non-Arabic speakers.
Sorry?
Say what?
Abdul....?
None of that works. You see my name doesn't work like Sam and Samuel. It has to be the full name to make sense. My name literally means "Slave of the opener of gates of livelihood". Quite the name, I know.
If you call me Abdul, you are calling me "Slave of". Not to mention the U instead of the E. If you call me Adel, that's a completely different name which means "Just" from justice.
Sisi
When the new president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, got elected I thought my life would be easier. I can say my name is Abdel Fattah like Egypt's president. I was wrong. No one follows Egyptian news outside of Egyptians it seems.
Ibrahim
My fathers name is Ibrahim. So people at work call me Ibrahim. Now this is another problem. You see I work in the family business. My brothers name is Mohamed. So he gets called Ibrahim because no one bothers to call someone Mohamed anymore. My father is called Ibrahim at work too.
So sometimes we all get asked "where is Ibrahim". Which one?
Fattah
Through out school I was called Fattah. I liked it, it was unique and it was actually part of my name. Can everyone just call me Fattah please? Thanks.
Aren't you Mr. Adel Fattah?
No. I'm Abdel Fattah.
Having a rare Arabic name
All my life I have encountered difficulty in introducing myself to non-Arabic speakers.
Sorry?
Say what?
Abdul....?
None of that works. You see my name doesn't work like Sam and Samuel. It has to be the full name to make sense. My name literally means "Slave of the opener of gates of livelihood". Quite the name, I know.
If you call me Abdul, you are calling me "Slave of". Not to mention the U instead of the E. If you call me Adel, that's a completely different name which means "Just" from justice.
Sisi
When the new president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, got elected I thought my life would be easier. I can say my name is Abdel Fattah like Egypt's president. I was wrong. No one follows Egyptian news outside of Egyptians it seems.
Ibrahim
My fathers name is Ibrahim. So people at work call me Ibrahim. Now this is another problem. You see I work in the family business. My brothers name is Mohamed. So he gets called Ibrahim because no one bothers to call someone Mohamed anymore. My father is called Ibrahim at work too.
So sometimes we all get asked "where is Ibrahim". Which one?
Fattah
Through out school I was called Fattah. I liked it, it was unique and it was actually part of my name. Can everyone just call me Fattah please? Thanks.
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