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US teen runs off to Iraq to see 'struggle between good and evil'
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-30 15:15
Maybe it was the time the taxi dumped him at the Iraq-Kuwait border, leaving
him alone in the middle of the desert. Or when he drew a crowd at a Baghdad food
stand after using an Arabic phrase book to ask for a menu. Or the moment a
Kuwaiti cab driver almost punched him in the face when he balked at the $100
(euro85) fare.
But at some point, Farris Hassan, a 16-year-old from Florida, realized that
traveling to Iraq by himself was not the safest thing he could have done with
his Christmas vacation.
And he didn't even tell his parents.
Hassan's dangerous adventure wound down Wednesday with the 101st Airborne
delivering the Florida teen to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, which has promised
to see him back to the United States this weekend.
It began with a high school class on "immersion journalism" and one
idealistic _ perhaps overly earnest _ student who's lucky to be alive after
going way beyond what any teacher would ask.
Farris Hassan, a 16-year-old-teen from Fort
Lauderdale. Fla., poses for a portrait at a hotel, backdropped by the
Ramadan 14th mosque in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday Dec. 28, 2005.
[AP] | As a high-school student at Pine Crest
School, a prep academy of about 700 students in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Hassan
read "The New Journalism," an introduction to immersion journalism featuring the
work of journalists like John McPhee, a writer who lives the life of his subject
in order to better understand it.
Diving headfirst into an assignment, Hassan, whose parents were born in Iraq
but have lived in the United States for about 35 years, hung out at a local
mosque. The teen, who says he has no religious affiliation, spent an entire
night until 6 a.m. talking politics with a group of Muslim men.
The next trimester, his class was assigned to choose an international topic
and write editorials about it. Hassan said he chose the Iraq war and decided to
practice immersion journalism there, too, though he knows his school in no way
endorsed his travels.
"I thought I'd go the extra mile for that, or rather, a few thousand miles,"
he told The Associated Press.
Using money his parents had given him at one point, he bought a $900
(euro760) plane ticket and left the country on December 11, one week before the
start of his school Christmas break. His destination: Baghdad.
Given his heritage, Hassan could almost pass as Iraqi. His father's
background helped him secure an entry visa, and native Arabs would see in his
face Iraqi features and a familiar skin tone. His wispy beard was meant to help
him blend in.
But underneath that Mideast veneer was a full-blooded American teen, a
born-and-bred Floridian sporting white Nike tennis shoes and trendy jeans. And
as soon as the lanky, 6-foot (1.8-meter) teenager opened his mouth _ he speaks
no Arabic _ his true nationality would have betrayed him.
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