“You think the United States is utopian?”
Abdullah Bannan ’23 responded to my poorly worded question with a polite yet warranted laugh.
“It’s interesting, because coming here I assumed that the United States is safer than Syria,” he said. “But I have to worry about things here that I never had to back home.”
Bannan came to Harvard from Aleppo, Syria, a serious hotspot for a civil war over the past decade. As one of the largest cities in Syria, Bannan’s home was the center of the major military confrontation essentially between the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and many other largely-Sunni groups along with the Syrian government, which is supported by Shia militias and Russia. As part of the ongoing Syrian Civil War, the conflict in Aleppo has essentially been divided between areas under control of the government and those fighting for a change in power.
The conflict began while Bannan was entering seventh grade. He recalls hearing about “people protesting and children being kidnapped by the government” as the first memories he had of the revolution. A large number of individuals that were drafted to the military then chose to leave, defect, and form the FSA. Bannan refers to any sense of normalcy gradually tapering off as the sounds of bombs grew closer and the city became more deserted. His own brother, who at the time was in medical school, joined his family in forming what Bannan describes as an “ad hoc clinic” to give medical assistance to civilians who suffered from government inflicted violence. Out of Bannan’s seven-story apartment building, he and his family were the only ones that remained in Aleppo at the time due to his father’s determination to prevent the government from gaining total control. It was only when their immediate house was bombed by the government and family members slightly wounded that Bannan’s family was forced to evacuate.
For the next three years, Bannan and his family moved throughout Syria to escape the violence. Luckily, his mother was a teacher, which allowed his siblings and him to continue learning from home while occasionally commuting to school to take exams and fill out paperwork. For Bannan, life-threatening circumstances were the norm for traveling to school and completing daily errands.
After winning a medal in the Biology Olympiad, Bannan came to Harvard in pursuit of attending medical school and studying Emergency Medicine. He attributes his motivation to study in the United States to ultimately being able to provide for his family: “Everything I do now—when I’m planning what I want to do after college, you know, I’m applying to Med School and taking a gap year—I’m always thinking about how this would help my family.”
With a Muslim father and Christian mother, Bannan grew up in an interfaith home that not only respected, but celebrated eachother’s religious differences. He quotes his father’s modus operandi: “Our differences are man made, and religion is like a painting: whoever stands right in front of it only sees a small part of the picture. They think they have it all figured out, until they step back and realize the entire image.” Although the Syrian Civil War has transformed into a sweeping conflict over the merit behind the Syrian government, its roots lie in religious polarity.
Coming to the US, Bannan’s largest observation of American students is our devotion to practicality. Everything we do has an individual intention, whether it be social, academic, or job-oriented. However, Bannan greatly cherishes the Syrian tradition of familial and relational priority, even if it does fail to produce the same financial results as the typical American professional path. The alleged ‘utopia’ that many regard America as is essentially a factory towards financial advancement.
“It’s crazy to me how much we talk about community here,” he shared. “In Syria, there’s not even a word for community. It’s just implied.”
Bannan grew up in a home that not only practiced two very distinct belief systems, but did so under the imminent threat of violence and destruction, and often connected by only a phone call. Yet his regard for family values seems much higher than most people I encounter. He thinks of how every aspect of his future will impact his siblings and parents, and what leverage he has in the United States to help them achieve a safer life.
“Hurt is relative, so people compare it to what they’ve been through most,” Bannan said. “I’ve learned how valuable my family is in both a good and hard way… and I think family is the most important thing.”
Abdullah Bannan is a junior at the College living in Dunster House. He is on the lightweight rowing team and is concentrating in Chemical and Physical Biology with a secondary in Philosophy.
Marbella Marlo ’24 (mmarlo@college.harvard.edu) interviews Harvard students and faculty about their backgrounds, passions, and values every other week.