It's been said that love has no boundaries. There is no distance it cannot span, no hurdle it cannot overcome. Love is limitless.
Unless, of course, it is between an underage American teen and a Palestinian man thousands of miles away.
Katherine Lester, a 16-year-old Michigan girl, made it farther than most would expect. After meeting Abdullah Jimzawi — a 20-year-old man from Jericho, West Bank — on MySpace.com, Lester planned to travel to Israel, convert to Islam and marry the man she met only eight months prior.
But the love affair was halted when Lester arrived in Amman, Jordan, and U.S. authorities seized her passport and put her on a flight back to the United States.
Despite sounding familiar to many other predator-based stories involving social networks, this case seems to hold more promise for cross-cultural relations.
Lester is not an adult and took a risk that could have ended her life. However, according to an interview with The Associated Press, the two Internet lovers seemed to be genuine in their feelings.
With family members on both sides to testify to the love birds' romantic feelings, the two serve as an example of cultural acceptance in a time of war.
Lately, when we hear news about the Middle East, it is easy to automatically think of Iraq and the war taking place. The concept of war implies a disagreement and opens the door for cultural stigmatization and prejudice.
But Lester and Jimzawi are an example of two people who broke through stereotypes.
Social networks have been in the limelight lately, criticized for their inability to track predators. And it is undeniable that these networks, including MySpace.com, have made it easier for sexual predators to reach underage children. This case, however, seems like an exception to the rule.
Age differences and legalities aside, the relationship formed between Lester and Jimzawi seems real and, on a larger scale, could represent something much bigger for our nation and social networking programs.
Cultural differences can carry a large weight in relationships, but this one wouldn't have even been possible without the Internet, which connected two people from across the world living completely different lives. Maybe it took a younger generation to overlook cultural prejudice and stigmatization, but we can all learn from this extreme case.
Lester is legally a child and may not know how she really feels about Jimzawi, and thinking it's okay to travel halfway around the world for a first love without the permission — or even awareness — of her parents is not a good idea. Still, it's important to acknowledge that, at least in this case, there is something to learn from the power of connectivity that comes with the World Wide Web and its ability to break stigmatization and barriers between different cultures.
Sometimes, being a little naive can take us a long way.
