Interview with Faraj

Faraj hails from Salamiyah, a city in the Homs Province of Western Syria with a long, rich history. Faraj, along with many other Salamiyah residents, adheres to the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam. Growing up in this community, where education was of utmost importance, Faraj was dedicated to his studies and ended up studying history in Lebanon. Though he has been passionate about journalism since childhood, he chose history because the curriculum structure allowed him to travel often between Syria, for work, and Beirut, for education. Unable to finish his final year of university because of the war, Faraj evaded a military draft and escaped over-land to Beirut. Once in Beirut, Faraj needed to find work just to survive. Spending seven days a week in a local Carrefour supermarket, his earnings barely covered living expenses, much less remittance sent home to his parents. After seven years in Beirut, a city full of people he continues to love, he made his way to Milan, where he has lived for the past three years with his wife and sister. Though geographically removed, Faraj remains connected to Salamiyah—he speaks with his parents whenever possible, if they have electricity. With his brother in Erbil, his parents in Syria, and the rest in Milan, Faraj is hoping to build a new life in a new country: no easy task. He dearly misses al-Shmemis castle, a site of ancient ruins in Salamiyah from the first-century B.C.E, and his adoptive friends and family in Lebanon. Though he enjoys eating pizza and pasta with his Italian colleagues at the travel agency where he now works, he is adamant that nothing can match his Syrian food from back home. He has now proudly mastered falafel and fatteh, thanks to recipes from Google. Faraj is currently writing a children’s beginner Arabic book and is considering traveling to the United States with his family for work, though COVID has made this endeavor considerably more difficult.

Listen to his story, below:

When I was a child, I preferred to be a journalist. I can say Mahmoud Darwish was my teacher. That’s why I decided to be, like, something like them. But so hard to do, to study that or to do that in Syria because you can’t speak what you want. And now, I’m sure the life here is not easy, here in Italy. Yeah, it’s exciting. I will arrive. I will. I can do. I can speak. I can. I can feel free. That’s why.

I’m Faraj. I’m from Syria. I live in Milan, Italy. I’m 29 years. I live with my wife, also my sister in Milan, and my parents in Syria, and I have my brother in, uh… Iraq in Erbil, Kudristan. So we’re all over the world. You know, I’m Syrian, so I escaped because we have the war. I’m from a small city. It’s called Salamiyah. It’s in the middle of Syria. In my city, or I can say in also my family and all my city, we are in Syria, it’s called Ismailite, if you know, Ismailite, if you know, our religion. We don’t have… freedom in Syria. When I traveled to Lebanon, in Beirut, it was 2013. It was the war, and… I decided to escape. So, I decided to work out of Syria and to start my future again to do something; to create a new future for me, for my family. Now, here, I decided to study journalism here, but all the journalists in Italy said: “we are poor. We don’t have a lot of money, so choose another way [laughs]. Before, in Lebanon it was, it was a comfortable life because I have a lot of friends there. It was my home for seven years. There, they saved my life. I can say that. Except, I have a lot of problem, problems in Lebanon. Now, the situation in Lebanon is so bad.

In Lebanon was easier than Italy, also in Syria was better than Italy. Not easy to create your life, but yeah. When you make a new life that means you don’t know how to do anything in the life, and you need to learn everything. How we can live here, about the law in the life, about the language, a new job… Everything is different. Everything is new.

I left Syria, I know it’s not my hometown now. I want one day to come back, but now, in this situation, I can’t go there. So my home and my future—until now—in Italy. We decided to stay here forever. And some—one day, I will be Italian. But here in Italy, they think all the Syrian people like Daesh: ISIS. Or some people thought we don’t have cars, we have only the camel. Already, we don’t have camel also in Syria (laughs). We are not dangerous. Or we don’t choose to travel. Not our choice to leave our country, or travel, or change the life. But we are not dangerous. That’s, that’s important.