Amina Araf, an American-Syrian lesbian woman and author of the popular blog ‘A Gay Girl in Damascus,’ was kidnapped late Monday while walking with a friend in the capital city.
MSNBC reports that Araf, who blogs under the pen name Amina Abdallah, was seized by three armed men and forced into their vehicle. A witness going by the name of Rania O. Ismail blogged that Araf’s kidnappers covered her mouth and hustled her into a red Dacia Logan bearing a Basel Assad bumper sticker – a reference to the late presidential security leader under President Bashar Assad.
As an openly lesbian woman, Araf knew she was taking a rare and significant risk in proclaiming her sexual orientation and blogging about politics and sexuality. Homosexuality is heavily discouraged in Syria, and Araf’s sexual politics only stood to compound her already defiant blog posts advocating peace and equality over outdated and overly stringent political authority.
Ismail’s blog reporting Araf’s disappearance included a plea from the blogger’s father, who is currently in hiding but claimed he would go public if it would help him find his daughter and secure her safe release.
Update: Araf’s identity, existence questioned
As media outlets worldwide reported on the abduction of the Syrian blogger who writes under the name Amina Araf, questions regarding the blogger’s identity and even existence rose to the surface.
When Londoner Jelena Lecic claimed that the photos being circulated via Facebook and news media outlets as images of Araf were actually her own personal photos, investigations into Araf’s disappearance took on a new angle.
NPR reported this afternoon that the existence of an Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari is currently under investigation by the U.S. State Department — and that State Department spokesman Mark Toner said they have “not yet been able to confirm” either the biographical details included in Araf’s blog or information about the blogger’s citizenship.
