A Gay Girl in Damascus
A Gay Girl in Damascus was a blog purportedly authored by Amina Abdallah Arraf al Omari. Omari was, in fact, a hoax persona created by the American citizen and then-student of the University of Edinburgh, Thomas Jarvis MacMaster. During the 2011 Syrian uprising, a posting on the blog, purportedly by "Amina's" cousin, claimed that the girl had been abducted on June 6, 2011. This sparked a strong outcry from the LGBTQ community and was covered widely in mainstream media.
In the wake of the reports, questions arose regarding the possibility that Arraf al Omari was an elaborate hoax. On June 7, 2011, author/blogger Liz Henry, Andy Carvin, and others raised doubts about the identity of the blogger. The photos purported to be of her were proven to be a Croatian woman residing in Britain, with no relation to Syria, the blog, or the ongoing protests in the country. On June 12, Ali Abunimah and Benjamin Doherty of the website The Electronic Intifada conducted an investigation that pointed to a strong possibility that the identity of Amina was MacMaster, an American living in Edinburgh. Hours later, MacMaster posted on "Amina's" blog and took responsibility for it and the false reports of the girl's capture. He was accused of creating a second hoax persona to defend his first one. MacMaster has since written two e-novels.
Creation and spread
MacMaster created the character Amina Abdallah as a fictional persona or alias; MacMaster said in an interview with NPR that he could not recall when he created the character. NPR stated that it found posts from Amina at the Yahoo! group "alternate-history" dating to February 2006. MacMaster said that he created the Amina character so he could more easily participate in discussions about the Middle East. MacMaster believed that if he used his real name, people would have presumed that he was too closely tied to the United States, but as Amina he would have more credibility.As Amina, MacMaster posted on various listservs and websites. MacMaster fleshed out the character's background, and he said that he began writing a novel based on the character. Eventually, he created various profiles for Amina at various social networking sites. Originally he used the character to discuss politics of the Middle East and science fiction. In the northern hemisphere fall of 2010, MacMaster moved Amina to Syria. MacMaster said that he was going to stop using the persona by then. Eyder Peralta of NPR stated "But the Arab Spring called her back."
In February 2011, MacMaster posted as Amina on the website Lez Get Real, operated by Bill Graber, a straight man pretending to be a lesbian named Paula Brooks. MacMaster and Graber corresponded, and under the Amina character MacMaster flirted with the Paula character. Graber said that the interaction "was a major sock-puppet hoax crash into a major sock-puppet hoax." As Amina, MacMaster wrote pieces for Lez Get Real.
MacMaster began the blog A Gay Girl in Damascus under the Amina name. The first entry appeared online on February 19, 2011. The publication, known for its commentary on politics, gender, sexuality, and Syrian culture, became, in the words of Nidaa Hassan of The Guardian, "increasingly popular after capturing the imagination of the Syrian opposition as the protest movement struggled in the face of the government crackdown." The blog's tagline was "An out Syrian lesbian's thoughts on life, the universe and so on..."
The blog gained popularity after an April 26 post titled "My Father the Hero" about two security agents who came to her home to detain her and were kept away by her father. She and he were described as going into hiding soon after, changing locations in Damascus.
In May 2011, Katherine Marsh of The Guardian, then deceived by the hoax, described the blog as "brutally honest, poking at subjects long considered taboo in Arab culture". The character of Amina claimed "Blogging is, for me, a way of being fearless, I believe that if I can be 'out' in so many ways, others can take my example and join the movement."
According to Doherty of The Electronic Intifada, MacMaster had also created social media profiles, including on Facebook, for both Amina and her fictitious cousin Rania, and had used them to correspond with activists for Palestinian and other causes.
According to American bisexual activist and author Minal Hajratwala, MacMaster wrote to Hajratwala in May 2011, asking for advice regarding a book Amina was writing. She said that MacMaster sent a copy of an autobiography of the character and asked Hajratwala to send the text to an agent. Hajratwala said that she, unaware of MacMaster's true identity, did not send the script to an agent because she believed the material was "rambling and in need of a lot of work."
Blog contents
Purported biography
The character of Amina Abdallah Arraf is a dual Syrian and American citizen, with an American mother and Syrian father. "The Lede Blog" of The New York Times noted that Arraf's draft of her biography indicated "very deep" American roots. She wrote that she was born in Staunton, Virginia in October 1975 to Abdallah Ismail Arraf and Caroline McClure Arraf. The McClures had emigrated to Virginia from Ulster in 1742. Four decades later, Arraf added, her mother's family fought in the American Revolution at Yorktown, "earning me the right to be in the DAR ."Her family moved to Syria when she was six months old and she grew up between the two countries. She spent a long period in the US after 1982, when an Islamist uprising in Syria was being violently put down. She realized she was gay when she was 15 and it terrified her. After planning to attend Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, she decided not to attend because she was troubled by the number of open lesbians on campus. She came out at 26 and returned to Syria to enjoy a calm life. There she taught English until the uprising closed classes.
Arraf experienced prejudice both in the US and Syria, but said she saw no conflict in being both gay and Muslim and described an experience finding other gay women in Syria.
Arraf's position as a dual citizen informed her political and cultural perspective, as did being a lesbian.
Homosexuality
Homosexual activity is illegal in Syria, and is punishable by at least three years in prison, and it is uncommon for gay Arabs to be open about their sexuality. Although Syria's human rights record is among the worst in the world, according to Human Rights Watch, the character of Amina wrote openly about her sexual orientation, experiences, and aspirations.In an email interview with CNN, MacMaster wrote as Amina that she believed that political change could improve gay rights.
Syrian uprising
The character of Amina was working on a book of her writings when she disappeared. She had gained popularity after her blogging about the Syrian opposition movement in the face of the government's crackdown on protests. The media in Western countries first paid attention to the blog around May 2011.Her family was well-connected with relatives in the government and the Muslim Brotherhood, and being politically active was a "natural thing". However, she stated "Unfortunately, for most of my life being aware of Syrian politics means simply observing and only commenting privately."
Amina had been increasingly critical of the government in the months of the Syrian uprising. In April, Arraf told how her father confronted two security agents who came to arrest her, threatened to rape her, and accused her of being involved in a salafist plot. When unrest broke out, her character described the protests as if she were there.
Fictitious account of threats and hiding
One of Amina's close online friends, a real person named Sandra Bagaria explained on June 7 that Arraf had been hiding in "four or five different apartments in four or five different cities" across Syria since two young men appeared at her home in Damascus several weeks before. "Amina woke up in the middle of the night and saw her father outside talking to two young guys in their early 20s. I think they were there just following orders, they didn't know what they were doing" Bagaria said. The two men eventually left without arresting Arraf al Omari, but "Since that day, we agreed they might come back for her. It was only a matter of time."In April, before fictionally going into hiding she wrote,"The Syria I always hoped was there, but was sleeping, has woken up... I have to believe that, sooner or later, we will prevail."
In May 2011, Arraf wrote that she had gone into hiding after her father reported that men had come looking for her. Two weeks later, she blogged that she had been sent a fake message by someone posing as her partner, inviting her to a meeting at a hotel. She also suspected her email accounts had been hacked.
In the weeks before her reported abduction, Amina had described traveling around Syria, sometimes in disguise and once riding inside a box on a truck, Bagaria said. At one point, Amina wore an Islamic head scarf and posed as her father's wife so that they could slip more easily through government checkpoints. "When she was traveling with her father, she was grabbed by a soldier who said 'What is a lovely young girl like you doing with an old man like him?'" Bagaria recalled being told. Although purportedly in hiding and under threats of arrest, the character of Amina continued to write her blog.
Arraf's character wrote that she would not flee Syria, and that activists had to fight for a more open and free country. She also explained her approach to nonviolence.
Fictitious abduction
The character of Amina Arraf was reportedly kidnapped by three armed men when she was on her way with a friend to a meeting in Damascus to meet with protest organizers around 6:00 pm on June 6, 2011. She was described as walking in the area of the Abbasid bus station near Fares al Khouri Street, on her way to meet a person involved with the Local Coordinating Committee, a real opposition planning group.On the blog, MacMaster posted as "Rania Ismail", Amina's fictional cousin, reporting the event: "Amina was seized by three men in their early 20s. According to the witness, the men were armed... Amina hit one of them and told the friend to go find her father. One of the men then put his hand over Amina's mouth and they hustled her into a red Dacia Logan with a window sticker of Basel Assad." Basel is the brother of president Bashar al-Assad.