"My Father, the hero" (Debunked)

[Eulogy]

For all we know, the kidnappers could be vigilantes who wanted to protect her from the bastard government goons.

Hey, I can dream.

[Duckie]

Interestingly, within a day the US Consulate in Syria is, via that blog (with accurate contact info, so unless there's a plant in the embassy itself there's nothing to be gained by lying about being a person), trying to verify her US citizenship status to begin talking with the Syrians.

I'm actually somewhat amazed at the promptness, but I guess shielding its citizens is something America can't be accused of not doing- given their touchiness to the ICC even when such a person deserves prosecution, it'd be out of character for the Americans not to care about a US Citizen kidnapped by another state's security apparatus.

[Duckie]

'such a person who deserves prosecution' not being amina, of course, but some other such person, I mean- what I meant was that if they protect people who deserve ICC prosecution so strenuously, it's not out of character to protect innocents that strongly or even harder at all

[hongi]

Apparently her family is quite well connected to members of the Baath Party as well as the Muslim Brotherhood. Here's hoping these save her. But there are hundreds just like her imprisoned at the moment.

[Duckie]

Stuff gets even weirder:

Andy Carvin, a journalist and investigator of internet hoaxes:

Regarding #Amina, aka Gay Girl In Damascus, here is what I know and don't know. Earlier this week I got a tip from an LGBT Syrian source who didn't believe Amina existed. They had told me they had asked around other members of the LGBT community and they couldn't find anyone who knew her. They also were very concerned that her blog posts were drawing attention to Syria's LGBT community in ways that could be dangerous for them.

Independently of this, two other Syrian sources I knew mentioned similar speculation to me. They didn't say she was fictitious, per se, but they were skeptical of the circumstances described in her My Father The Hero blog post. My first source also expressed similar skepticism. Given their collective experiences with Syrian security services, they simply did not believe it was possible her father could protect her by shaming them into leaving the house. They said the men would have dragged her way no matter what. It didn't pass their personal sniff tests.

I began to ask around on Twitter if anyone had met her in person, and I couldn't find anyone who had. Given that I only started exploring this question this afternoon, there is always the possibility that I simply haven't been talking to the right people yet who can confirm having real-world interactions with her. I then asked if anyone knew of anyone else who had met her in person, and heard from several people who all mentioned the same person: a friend of hers in Canada. I tried contacting her online and didn't hear back for a while. (She has since emailed me back in the last hour but we haven't had a chance to speak yet.) I also reached out to an editor at the Guardian, which ran an interview with her last month. He said he'd put me in touch with the editor who handled the story, so I can find out if the interview was conducted in person. That answer might clear up a lot of this, but I'm still waiting to hear back from him.

Regarding the friend in Canada, a producer at BBC World Have Your Say contacted me publicly over Twitter and said they had interviewed her on air this morning, and he said that she had only been in contact with Amina via Skype. A Canadian journalist who also had interviewed her told me the same thing, adding that video skype isn't available in Syria, so the friend in Canada only knew her via text chat.

While all of this was going on, I contacted another Syrian contact who has connections with two prominent opposition members. He was under the impression that one of these people had indeed met her once, but in an email that this person sent me this evening, he denied this. Supposedly the other opposition activist was aware of her, but I haven't heard from him directly, so I can't speculate either way. Another contact who was friends with Amina on Facebook (but not in person) sent me a collection of some of the photos of Amina from her page. They were all clearly of the same woman whose picture has been circulating as Amina. Many of them are picture of her alone, but some of them appear to be posed with friends or family.

Finally, yet another source told me to take a look at a previous blog she had allegedly written several years ago:

http://bit.ly/j8AWb5

The blog explicitly stated it was her intention to post both real stories and fiction on her blog - and not tell readers which was which. To quote the blog:

This blog is ...
... where I will be posting samples of fiction and literature I am working on.
This blog will contain chapters and drafts.
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.* (emphasis mine)
This blog will sample what I'm writing.
This blog is not a diary.
This blog is not about politics.
This blog invites your comments.

So where does this leave us? I still have many more questions than answers, but I currently believe Amina is a real person, but one who is much more expressive about herself online than offline. It is possible that Amina Arraf is a pen name, to protect herself in Syria, but so far I can't prove it one way or another. If it is just a pen name, that might explain why the sources I talked to said they'd never met a person by that name. Even so, I wouldn't be surprised if I indeed found people who know her in person. It's just taking longer time than I would have liked. Much of this could be sorted out by contacting her reported American mother, but I hadn't been able to do that yet, which is why I haven't had much to say about the topic for the last few hours. I also felt that I didn't want to send people on a wild goose chase when it's quite possible she is indeed detained under very harsh conditions.

Despite all the questions I have, I am deeply worried that this discussion about her identity could distract people from the possibility that should might be being brutalized in detention, and in dire need of support from friends and strangers alike. Having a pen name and writing occasional fiction on an otherwise real blog, if that is indeed true, is an academic discussion when compared with what she might indeed be going through.

Whoever she is, wherever she is, I hope she is well and with us again online soon. -andy

Posted without much comment except to blink in confusion.

[Duckie]

Done some checking- it's a bit hard to find through stuff, but I've done some checking on various theories.

I also did some trawling- amina abdallah and her girlfriend are almost certainly likely not the same person pulling a hoax. Different writing styles and personalities. I also checked an obvious idea- if amina is a fake, who is the girl in the pictures? First off, the girl in the pictures identified as "Amina" is consistant. Second off, nobody I checked friended to or associated with her girlfriend resembles her beyond them all being young syriennes.

Amina seems legit, or at least a well-constructed fake identity for someone who is profoundly familiar with syrian internal politics and palestianian cultural psychology. I found her profile on a website nobody else probably has seen unless they're also playing internet detective- registered in march. Followed that to an account amina had. They never used their accounts, but their friends profile is quite telling. Amina 'followed' several people- some famous lesbians, her girlfriend, etc.

One of her favourites though is a random seeming girl, who unlike many of the others hasn't changed her avatar to a 'free amina' one. Some digging online found that she's an actuarial candidate in atlanta georgia. A city that Amina claimed to have lived in in her past.

This wasn't meant to be found- there's no point to it. It's a website that they maybe met over or joined (though they joined at different times, the girlfriend about when the blog was made, amina a month later ish), but neither of them used it for publishing stories, and Amina already had her blog. Yet there they are. With a georgian actuary.

EDIT

I'm now looking at her entire educational history. On a website that was updated last in 2008. How did nobody not find this? It took me just a few hours of cyberstalking. Ah well, time to go see if I can school this NPR guy or if he's beaten me to the punch

Amina Arraf is real, or at least is a plot 3 years in the making.

[evilsoup]

Well, on Newsnight right now they are talking to a woman who is claiming that it is her pictures that have been put up for this blog (without her permission).

EDIT: and a Syrian human rights activist is claiming that he knows no-one who has met this Amina.

[madd0ct0r]

got a message from avaaz today 'free amina' with links to articles in Washington Post, CNN and now it seems she's hit newsnight.

must have been more well known then i thought. if it's a plot to raise awareness of Syrian troubles, that seems not such a bad thing.
(especially if is actually a plot, because then the story will run and run)
Whether or not she exists, there are a lot of people in Syria who'd benefit from external scrutiny.

[Alyeska]

Time also has a story on this. There are reports that her picture is actually of a women in London.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/06/09/gay ... er-exists/

[Duckie]

Time just got to that? That was discovered yesterday at about 3PM. God the mainstream media is slow... time's got to be the slowest of the slow too. My respect for the guardian and npr continues to climb and for pretty much any other english language media to fall.

Since it's my fault people on SDN are talking about this, I'll say a bit here. Anyway, the thing about the photos is true. Yet all of this is far more complicated than it looks at first glance, and for people not deeping involved waiting for more info rather than trying to draw conclusions now is probably in order. That's all I have to say on the matter.

[Coalition]

Since it's my fault people on SDN are talking about this, I'll say a bit here. Anyway, the thing about the photos is true. Yet all of this is far more complicated than it looks at first glance, and for people not deeping involved waiting for more info rather than trying to draw conclusions now is probably in order. That's all I have to say on the matter.

I'm the one who started the thread. Flames go to me.

[Duckie]

Nah, no flames. Just, cautions..

Also, media gets even less credit than you would think. I wrote about that being discovered at 3pm, but I actually meant '3am' of course. You're telling me stories of that are just now filtering out? That's crazy.

[fgalkin]

You mean, the media doesn't give insta-updates on an obscure blogger in a Middle East shithole? I'm shocked, SHOCKED, and outraged!

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[kromtar]

Might be complete paranoia on my part, and I would be more disturbed, but what if this was a 'trap' persona for Syrian security services? How many people have been 'friended' on this site through facebook so that the Syrian government could track them down and monitor potential 'trouble makers'?

[Eframepilot]

Confirmed as hoax.

Apology to readers
I never expected this level of attention. While the narrative voıce may have been fictional, the facts on thıs blog are true and not mısleading as to the situation on the ground. I do not believe that I have harmed anyone -- I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about.

I only hope that people pay as much attention to the people of the Middle East and their struggles in thıs year of revolutions. The events there are beıng shaped by the people living them on a daily basis. I have only tried to illuminate them for a western audience.

This experience has sadly only confirmed my feelings regarding the often superficial coverage of the Middle East and the pervasiveness of new forms of liberal Orientalism.

However, I have been deeply touched by the reactions of readers.

Best,
Tom MacMaster,
Istanbul, Turkey
July 12, 2011

The sole author of all posts on this blog

[Duckie]

And that's a wrap. Seriously, fuck this guy. If I ever meet this guy he'll be getting at least a single punch in the face from me.

[FSTargetDrone]

And that's a wrap. Seriously, fuck this guy. If I ever meet this guy he'll be getting at least a single punch in the face from me.

This clown sure isn't in a hurry to change the front page:

A Gay Girl in Damascus

An out Syrian lesbian's thoughts on life, the universe and so on ..

[Alyeska]

Careful with the internet tough guy stuff. Lets stay a little more focused on the topic.

[Duckie]

Internet tough guy? What do you know about this being internet toughguyism? Do you want me to spell what you should have already read between the lines in this thread, moderator? With all due respect, take it to PMs with me if you've more to say. If you don't want to, then I'll bow out of this thread.

I'll concede the fist thing regardless, as apparently that's against board policy no matter how deserved. But fuck this guy and fuck whatever fucked up sense of morals made him think it was okay to do this, and that he "didn't hurt anyone".

He's a liar and an asshole. What more is there to say but 'fuck him'?

[Alyeska]

Internet tough guy? What do you know about this being internet toughguyism? Do you want me to spell what you should have already read between the lines in this thread, moderator? With all due respect, take it to PMs with me if you want to discuss more.

I'll concede the fist thing regardless, as apparently that's against board policy. But fuck this guy and fuck whatever fucked up sense of morals made him think it was okay to do this, and that he "didn't hurt anyone".

He's a liar and an asshole. What more is there to say but 'fuck him'?

It was a friendly suggestion aimed and reminding people not to go over board. There are limits to that behavior, though you have yet to cross them.

So here is the official friendly "suggestion"

PR2: Do Not Flout The Law. This is not an "underground" forum. Do not brag about criminal activity, incite criminal activity, solicit or offer pirated software, etc.

Added to that is the unlisted but very real rule about making death threats against people.

You have not crossed the line on either, please continue to refrain from doing so.

[Serafina]

So basically this was all a stunt to garner attention. Which would be okay in my book if he actually used that attention to propagate serious ideas and debates, but i wouldn't say that this was the case. And even if it was, the fact that it was all a hoax and a lie would damage such content by association.

And it certainly WAS designed to gather as much attention as possible. I'm not buying "oh i had no idea this was getting so big"-crap, given that most of the content was specifically designed to grab as much attention as possible, including many of the "personal stories".

And that's a wrap. Seriously, fuck this guy. If I ever meet this guy he'll be getting at least a single punch in the face from me.

While i do not consider violence to be justified, i share the general sentiment - fuck this asshole.
As for "i do not believe i have harmed anyone"- he certainly has. I had a minor breakdown when reading about the supposed kidnapping. Granted, right now i do have a depression and i am easy to upset with such things - but he still deliberately created something with the potential to inflict emotional harm. Hardly a crime, but it should be on his conscience.

More substantially, as i mentioned above, this has a lot of potential to damage any actual struggle of LGBT-people in the Middle East. Tactics like these were actually used by various anti-gay groups in Germany - do it often enough and people will start to take reports of anti-LGBT violence or discrimination much less seriously. If you read about it a dozen times and it turns out to be fake every time, your emotional response even to an actual event will be much lower - if you don't assume it's a fake in the first place. This works particularly well on LGBT-sympathizers - and similar tactics have been used for other things, such as rape, racial discrimination etc.
But hey, why not throw LGBT-people under the bus to promote your own political ideas?

[Duckie]

What Serafina said times two. It's amazing too. Do you know why we think he did it?

Because he's anti-zionist and wanted to show there was a third way- being pro-arab but pro-gay rights was possible. So he invented a muslim gay girl, and pretended to be her for at least 5 fucking years, riding the syrian revolution to popularity when it happened. What an asshole. A jerk of the highest caliber. I don't even like Israel that much but find myself now liking them more simply because I hate everything this guy stands for.

Not to mention that he's a white straight man presenting the public face of a non-white gay woman. Can you get any more fake than that? Issues of privilege definitely come to mind.

"He hasn't harmed anyone". I know of several actual living human beings he has, and also the entire LGBT movement in arab states, and you know that entire damn revolution in Syria? What a callous ass.

[Alyeska]

He validated peoples prejudice against homosexuals by using deceitful tactics. That it was a heterosexual man is irrelevant because people who dislike gays will remember a lie was told about gays. He might have brought awareness, but when the house of cards came tumbling down the damage was significant.

This is why I do not support the use of a lie towards an important goal that affects the lives of others. If my lie hurts myself, that is my own mistake. If my lie can hurt countless others, it is immoral no matter the good intentions.

What this man did is wrong.

[Duckie]

He validated peoples prejudice against homosexuals by using deceitful tactics. That it was a heterosexual man is irrelevant because people who dislike gays will remember a lie was told about gays. He might have brought awareness, but when the house of cards came tumbling down the damage was significant.

This is why I do not support the use of a lie towards an important goal that affects the lives of others. If my lie hurts myself, that is my own mistake. If my lie can hurt countless others, it is immoral no matter the good intentions.

What this man did is wrong.

But it is important. He is a white straight man hijacking the voices of actual non-white gay women. They actually do exist. They have actual stories. But this man's deceit has made their stories now questionable, and drowned out their voices. I wish I could explain it better than I am right now.

[Alyeska]

But it is important. He is a white straight man hijacking the voices of actual non-white gay women. They actually do exist. They have actual stories. But this man's deceit has made their stories now questionable, and drowned out their voices. I wish I could explain it better than I am right now.

No, you raise a valid point. I hadn't even considered that particular angle. His deceit creates doubt when examining other people in similar situations. And that hurts their voice making it more difficult for them to tell the world of their plight.