The Los Angeles Times has a tragic piece out today on the life of a Hezbollah-supporting teen in Lebanon. An excerpt:

As soon as she finishes up her classes at a Hezbollah-sponsored high school, she’d like to go to Tehran to study directing, and make movies about the south of Lebanon. “I like the idea of directing films, because you meet many people and learn more about them,” she says.
Despite her love for the movies, fantasies of martyrdom also tug at her. Hiba grew up hearing the stories of martyrs, their lives and their sacrifices. In addition to the uncle in Tyre, another uncle was killed in a 1996 operation and a third during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
She talks about their deaths with the same pride another teen might display describing an older sibling’s feats on a football field.
“We have many martyrs in the family, and we like this thing,” she says. “As ordinary people, we have to work and say prayers, and despite all of that we might not go to heaven. But the martyrs go directly to heaven.”
Hiba insists that she’s not just repeating political slogans. She says if given the chance, she would sacrifice herself and her dreams to become a martyr.
“Let’s speak logically,” she says. “The path of each person is not decided by us, and our years are limited by God’s wants, so if it was offered to me to die as a martyr, it’s better than to live life with all its sins.”