A Gay Girl In Damascus

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2021-06-13 00:00:04

Amina Abdallah Arraf al Omari was a fictional character and hoax persona created and maintained by American Tom MacMaster.[1] The identity was presented as a Syrian-American blogger, identifying herself as a lesbian on her weblog A Gay Girl in Damascus and blogging in support of increased civil and political freedom for Syrians. During the 2011 Syrian uprising, a posting on the blog purportedly by "Amina's" cousin claimed that Amina was abducted on June 6, 2011. This sparked a strong outcry from the LGBT 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,[2] Andy Carvin[3] (a journalist with National Public Radio in Washington, D.C.) 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.[4] Hours later, Tom MacMaster posted on "Amina's" blog and took responsibility for the blog and the false reports of her capture.[5]

MacMaster created the character Amina Abdallah as a fictional persona or alias; MacMaster said in an interview with National Public Radio 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.

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