ABSTRACT
Hussein is the eldest son of one of Hajj Khalaf’s brothers, and in his childhood he enjoyed prosperity and comfort in a family of wealth and social position. He studied law at Damascus university, where he became interested in politics, and he is seen as a high profile Ba’th Party member in his own village community and in town. He lives in al-Raqqa and is the director of a government organization. He works in a plush office, with a car and a driver. His ideas counteract most of what his family, and many of his village folk, still consider valuable. He is still single and holds progressive views about marriage and the qualities of his future wife-to-be. He is a modernist, a progressive socialist with liberal ideals, and is very conscious of the problems, questions and directions of national development.
