Gay? Girl? Damascus?

The campaigns to free “Amina Abdallah/Arraf” – the “Gay Girl in Damascus”  – have drawn some interesting critique in the context of the Arab revolutions. Here are a few excerpts from one article:

One can come to many conclusions about what the unraveling Amina story actually means, but for our purposes what it demonstrates is the growing fracture between the very real, lived concerns of people living in the region and the selective, sensationalist focus of the Western media on issues in which they can see themselves reflected in, one of which is the lives of “gay Arabs” and “gay Muslims”. […]

[G]ay Arabs are only the latest fodder used to fan the flames of Islamophobia in political, media, and public discourse. […]

[T]he use of human rights abuses to justify the War on Terror speaks this violent logic: that those who are intolerant do not deserve to be tolerated (by those who both set the standard and are tasked with upholding it, when it suits them). Homophobia within Palestine, for example, which is bizarrely presented as unique and exceptional, becomes a justification for why Palestinians are less deserving of justice, equality and a state than the liberal, tolerant and democratic Israelis.

But more to the point, it all seems to be a hoax: New evidence about Amina, the “Gay Girl in Damascus” hoax

May Allah protect the Syrian people and all those struggling for their legitimate rights.

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