I worked with a Iranian women, she HATED Arabs and was very offended if anyone mistook her for one. Also, she referred t herself as "Persian".
I know a girl like this too. She is Iranian and would always refer to herself as “Persian” whenever anybody asked. Nobody would ever mistakenly label her an “Arab.” If I had to guess from her looks alone, I probably would have guessed something along the lines of Romanian.
Oddly, after 9/11 she suddenly began describing herself as “Arabic,” immediately sensing that, at long last, she could find herself some victim status by claiming harassment. She is an ultra-liberal college professor (a “doctor” of women’s studies, if you can even believe that there is such a thing, who actually introduces herself as “doctor”).
She immediately started organizing conferences and candlelight vigils to publicize how she and her “fellow” Arabs have been routinely persecuted since 9/11. You know, possible dirty looks, waiting a long time to be seated in a crowded restaurant and such.
The imaginary pain this suddenly Arabic woman has endured is incalculable!