Syria: Mystery surrounds ‘Gay Girl in Damascus’ blogger abduction

Questions arise over identity of lesbian feminist blog’s author after apparent kidnapping by security forces US embassy officials in Syria are urgently seeking to establish further details about Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari – who according to a post on her blog, A Gay Girl in Damascus , was abducted by security forces on Monday evening – as questions emerged over the identity of the blogger. According to the blog, which has gained a growing following in Syria and further afield since popular protests against the government began in March, Araf was snatched by three armed men on a Damascus street and has not been heard from since. The update was signed by Rania O Ismail, who said she was Araf’s cousin. The blogger, who writes of her life as a lesbian feminist participating in the protests, has said that her mother is American and she is a joint US-Syrian citizen. Angela Williams from the US embassy in Damascus told the Guardian that US officials had not been able to confirm any of the details in the blog, and had no records of someone of that name living in Damascus. “We and our colleagues in Washington are continuing to attempt to ascertain more information about Ms Araf, including confirmation of her citizenship. We are unable to make a consular representation to the Syrian authorities on Ms Araf’s behalf without first determining that she is a US citizen.” Other questions have arisen over the identity of the blog’s author. A London woman, Jelena Lecic, issued a statement saying that photographs that had been published and widely circulated as being of Araf were in fact of her. The Guardian removed a picture after it received a complaint from Lecic, replacing it with another image supplied directly to the paper last month by the blog’s author. That picture has also been removed following a second complaint from Lecic, pending an investigation. Emails to an address supplied by Ismail have not met a response and the Guardian has been unable independently to verify Araf’s identity or that of her parents, in Syria or the US. No individual has been identified who can confirm they have met Araf or spoken to her by Skype or telephone. Activists in Syria frequently take elaborate steps to conceal their identities, often communicating by Skype or secure email rather than meeting face to face and using pseudonyms or multiple identities. At least 750 activists have been killed by security forces since the uprising began. Tal al-Mallouhi, a 20-year-old Palestinian-Syrian blogger from Homs, was sentenced to five years in jail in February, accused of spying for the US. Other bloggers and dissidents have faced similar fates. The Guardian last month published an interview with the blog’s author , conducted by a Damascus journalist who wrote under the pseudonym Katherine Marsh. Marsh was given an email for the blogger by a trusted Syrian contact, and suggested in extensive email correspondence that they meet in person or talk by Skype. The contact had never met Araf. Araf, who according to blogposts was living on the run, agreed to meet Marsh in person but did not turn up for the rendezvous. In later emails she said she had been followed, and so aborted the meeting. Araf told Marsh that Skype had been blocked, which was why she was unable to communicate by that means. The site is not blocked in Syria but was blocked from download, according to Marsh. On an earlier blog, dated December 2007, the author wrote she would post “samples of fiction and literature I am working on. This blog will have what may sometimes seem likely deeply personal accounts. And sometimes they will be. But there will also be fiction. And I will not tell you which is which.” Some experts on gay communities in the Middle East say that much on the blog feels authentic, but others have expressed unease about some of the details outlined in individual posts. Dan Littauer, executive editor of GayMiddleEast.com, told the Guardian his colleagues in Damascus were seeking to verify Araf’s identity, but were sceptical about the details of some incidents, including an account of security services turning up to arrest her but being sent away by her father. Sandra Bagaria, a Canadian who said she was an online friend of the blogger, told the New York Times that she had never met Araf or spoken to her on Skype, but said she had spoken to Ismail after Araf’s disappearance. Paula Brooks, the American executive editor of the blog Lezgetreal.com, which hosted several postings under Araf’s byline dating from before the uprising in Syria, said she too had corresponded only by email with the blogger. A search of the IP address on which Araf contacted Brooks can be traced to a server in Edinburgh, but the trail also leads to a number of untraceable servers. Activists keen to obscure their identities frequently use “proxy” servers to disguise the source of their postings. A number of internet sites appear to lend credence to the blogger’s story, but are extremely difficult to verify independently. Abandoned sites on Myspace and Linkedin appear to belong to the same person, as does a cached lesbian dating site page dated to 2007, in which “almondeyez” describes herself as “the coolest, sexiest half-Arab SF loving geek girl you’ll ever meet”. Many details on the sites are consistent with those outlined on the blog. A Facebook page apparently belonging to Ismail has also been identified. A post of erotic poetry, dating from 2007, is bylined Amanda L McClure, the “American” name which Araf says on her blog she could have taken (she identifies her mother as Caroline McClure Araf). It is not unusual for genuine bloggers writing under pseudonyms to face questions over the authenticity of their voice, including Salam Pax, the “Baghdad Blogger” who wrote a column for this newspaper and was a genuine Iraqi writer. A number of prominent blogs, including Plain Layne, supposedly the diary of a bisexual young woman, have been exposed as elaborate fictions, however. That blog was written by a man, Odin Soli, who now calls himself a writer of “online fiction”. The administrator of the Facebook page Free Amina Araf posted the following update: “At the time this site was created, there was no reason to doubt her authenticity of the story … We think it is possible that the writer of the blog is indeed in custody, in which case, it is important to continue to support her. Many people in Syria are forced to use alternative identities to protect themselves.” Syria Middle East Blogging Digital media Arab and Middle East unrest Newspapers & magazines Esther Addley Nidaa Hassan guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 8, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.