34-year old Amina Abdullah is a lesbian woman in Syria – a country where homosexuality is illegal. While many women in her position would do their best to stay out of the media spotlight, Abdullah decided to risk her life in order to share her story and her stance on open homosexuality through her blog, “A Gay Girl in Damascus.”
Abdullah spoke with CBS’ What’s Trending via email about her decision to launch the blog, a platform from which she intends to share “an out Syrian lesbian’s thoughts on life, the universe and so on,” and the necessity of remaining in hiding to avoid repercussions from government authorities.
While her contributions to the online LGBT community began as casual comments to posts on lezgetreal.com, Abdullah soon found herself a regular contributor with a following – and a mission to inspire other Syrian women to be more up-front about their sexuality and experiences. Now, she has been dubbed “Damascus Gay Girl” by her friends in the protest movement and has found the response to her writings to be “incredible…and almost entirely positive.”
When asked about the progress of LGBT rights and revolutionaries against dictatorial regimes, Abdullah says, “if we want to be free, we must first overcome our own worst enemy, which is the one within us. It is that fear that has allowed the dictators to rule; it is that fear that keeps us as Arabs, as Muslims, as women and as lesbians trapped.”
We applaud Abdullah’s bravery and hope to see change come to Damascus and everywhere else in the world where LGBT individuals are forced into hiding.
Very informative article, but what does the Burqa photo have to do with a lesbian Arab? It’s very disheartening to see a very stereotypical image of how women in Arab countries are portrayed. =/