Steven Baxter

Patrolling the murkier waters of the mainstream media

The Damascus delusion

The "Gay Girl in Damascus" blog was a product of an American man's imagination. But does it matter?

By Steven Baxter Published 13 June 2011 14:09

"I never expected this level of attention," wrote A Gay Girl in Damascus in what will probably be her final ever blog entry. "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."

These, then, were not the words of a gay girl in Damascus called Amina Arraf - they were the words of Tom MacMaster, an American student in Edinburgh. The "kidnapping" of the anonymous blogger, which caused widespread concern and pressure from Facebook groups and campaigners alike to get the author of the blog released, was just a story, too.

This was not the frontline blog from an oppressed lesbian in Syria; this was the fantasy of a married 40-year-old man. He says he wanted his views to be taken seriously, and that he didn't write anything that wasn't based on the experiences that were faced by citizens of Syria. But can you really be taken seriously when pretending to be someone you're not, especially when frontline blogging relies so much on trust?

MacMaster's blog may have been fictional, but he says it was rooted in fact. He wasn't there in Syria, seeing and experiencing the things his blogging persona claimed to be seeing and experiencing. He didn't have those feelings; he didn't have those thoughts. It must have taken a brilliant imagination to get Amina's story across. Does it matter that it was just that, a story, rather than a real first-hand account?

To answer that question you have to look at the Facebook sites that sprung up when news of the invented kidnapping of "Amina" emerged. The admin of one such "free Amina" page, with more than 14,000" 'likes", said: "Be assured administrators of this site - who were friends with "Amina" online - are just as angry as everyone else over the revelation made by Tom MacMaster. This foolish and cruel hoax has distracted from the real issue in Syria - that the Syrian people are sacrificing their lives for calling for an end to a regime that silences, disappears, tortures and murders its people, a regime that has repeatedly fired directly into peaceful demonstrations."

That seems unequivocal. The MacMaster tales may have made it harder for the stories of genuine frontline bloggers to be taken seriously, those for whom anonymity is not a convenient way of exploring a literary style or "being taken seriously" on a subject in which one isn't seen as an expert, but an absolute necessity. Amina's life may well be similar to a real person's life, and the blog may well have raised awareness of life for oppressed people in Syria, but that still isn't good enough. The claim was that this was a real person's blog. It wasn't.

The news organisations which used the story may be more circumspect in future - but there is a place for the genuine first-hand accounts of people who are afraid to reveal their identities for fear of reprisals. The question arises of how these sources are to be verified when they claim to be in fear for their very lives - perhaps reporting with a degree of explanation that the blogger can't be assured to be who they say they are is enough. That won't sit well with a lot of journalists, but perhaps that's the world we're now in.

The sadness is that MacMaster is, to my mind at least, a talented writer. I think part of the reason why Amina's story garnered so much interest was the brilliance of the realistic detail, the humanity of the story, the tenderness and empathy with which Amina's life was depicted. Look back through Amina's blogposts and you can find poetry, political posts and perfectly paced stories about emotional issues like coming out. See it for what it is - fiction - and you can admire the literary creation of MacMaster. If only he had presented it that way in the first place. If only he had.

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18 comments

Wed, 2011-10-19 06:26 — Taggart

The problem is he didn't write a novel, he wrote a blog, and while blogs aren't always 100% honest or even well researched, they are at least tokenly non-fictional. He put all of the people who were brave enough to enquire after Amina's safety in danger, and has giving ammunition to the Syrian regime who can point to his blog and claim that all accounts of repression are fictional. http://www.yourcareerguide.org

Mon, 2011-06-13 21:46 — Nichol (not verified)

I'm afraid people liked the story *because* it was fictional,*because* it was written from the point of view of somebody in 'the west', who tried to imagine somebody out there in Syria. But that is why we have fiction. And why we should be careful to let fiction define real reality for us. Real reality is always more boring, more random, less consistent, and sometimes much stranger than we can even imagine. That is what makes real bloggers, writing about real life so valuable, their reality, quite remote from ours, but still common to us in its humanity. Both genres should be valued for their very different strengths, and mixing the two destroys the trust we need to enjoy either.

Tue, 2011-06-14 23:19 — Crae (not verified)

Fat-faced foolish male living in total comfort posing as a defiant woman in grave danger.

Is bewildered at how "this whole thing got out of hand" with his thousands of deceptive, lying posts and emails.

Asked whether he posed as a lesbian for erotic kicks, says he "doesn't want to get into that particularly" and also hopes the hubbub will not interfere with his vacation.

Low-life, clueless drama queen.

Tue, 2011-06-14 01:13 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

Sappho, the lesbian that wasn't.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho

Tue, 2011-06-14 02:49 — jie4v7i14

A fine work in pointing out that gullability abounds, stirred via strands of glass by this yank, living in Scotland. An excellent story.

Wed, 2011-06-15 10:49 — stephan (not verified)

So convenient to attack this person. Hide the fact that this is part of the organized strategy of using the blogosphere to serve political ends. This is not just some quirky bloke but a full time paid worker doing his job for whoever pays him and a few hundred(thousand?)others to create the impressions they want, globally.

Thu, 2011-06-16 07:40 — Cylux (not verified)

I'd say it certainly matters a hell of a lot more since he decided to go with a notpology when coming clean. Clearly a narcissistic fantasist.

Tue, 2011-06-14 10:19 — Mejoff (not verified)

Does it matter?
Well, if you read the article here:
http://gaymiddleeast.com/news/news%20317.htm
I think it's rather obvious that it matters really a whole lot.
Not just a cruel hoax, but deeply irresponsible and dangerous.
And the utter hypocritical shite that he tried to excuse himself with in his sign-off, accusing his readers of "liberal Orientalism" was the shit-cherry on the cake.

Tue, 2011-06-14 11:06 — Seven Spades (not verified)

Well no one would have read it if he had. The fact is it is a good lesson not to believe everything you read.

Good on him.

Mon, 2011-06-13 14:20 — Des Demona (not verified)

If only indeed. Delusional people like this further destroy the perceived integrity of factual blogs no matter how much they bleat 'well....it might have been true'.
Idiot.

Tue, 2011-06-14 13:40 — Ramsey (not verified)

I am from Syria, and my impression after reading this blog is that whoever created this blog was trying to hide their real intents in a very smart way:

This is what I believe what the primary intent of the blog: To foment sectarian hatred in Syria.

Notice how Amina talks. Though she is made to be this incredibly nice and wholesome person, she constantly speaks in a highly sectarian way: She is a Sunni, who is defending with her father Sunni interests and rights. She uses the world Muslim to mean Sunni interchangeably and refers to other muslim sects as (infidels, polytheists and heathen – highly inflammatory characterisations). Her attacks are mostly aimed at the Alawi sect and this is most obvious in the 2007 version of the blog which is much more offensive than the 2011 version. This is highly inflammatory language and can cause a lot of trouble in the Middle East if it becomes common wisdom. Social unrest and conflict can result and many places have had sectarian and religious wars and conflicts as a result of ideas such as these.

You will also notice in the two versions (more clearly in the 2007 version) attempts to attack falsifying history. Here in a totally fictional event but that is portrayed as reality (like everything else in the blog), Amina claims that Hafez Assad (Syria’s President during the war with Israel over the Golan Heights) caused her Sunni uncle Omar to die by withdrawing and letting a big number of Sunnis to die. He is then portrayed as a traitor to the Sunnis. Readers from the Middle East can easily see through what this blog was trying to achieve.

This was no ordinary hoax, the author took a lot of effort to pull it off. I believe there was an insidious political goal behind. This was possibly part of a cyber war of words and ideas and manipulation being waged on the internet for political gains.

Unfortunately, what we are seeing in Syria is a re-emergence of sectarian talk and hatred – If my suspicions are correct, has this blog and others like it been successful and who is really behind this spreading of misinformation?

Mon, 2011-06-13 14:45 — Akheloios (not verified)

He's a very good writer. If he'd written this as a novel, he might have been up for a Booker. Giving an accurate and emotive fictionalisation of real problems isn't a crime.

He chose to release his work in the wrong medium, and has lost the chance to do some real good, while putting real people in real danger.

Tue, 2011-06-14 15:33 — Geraint (not verified)

Mr.MacMasters may claim that he did this to raise awareness, but I do not buy that. I think he did this for kicks and to furfil his fancies.

He should be ashamed of himself, his actions have put people at risk and will make it a lot more difficult of a genuine dissitent who blogs to be believed in future

Mon, 2011-06-13 16:28 — acommentator

Honestly - have you read any of his "lesbian poetry"?

I grew up reading Fiesta and Knave. It would have been well placed there.

It was basically fake lesbian porn, written from a male perspective, interspersed with promises that "she" would fight for Assad if Syria was "invaded" combined jibes at the "Chosen People" Jews who apparently hate the "Goyim"

Disgusting man.

Mon, 2011-06-13 16:42 — TimFootman

If he'd presented it to the world as fiction, he'd probably have had to self-publish, and we certainly wouldn't be talking about it now.

Thu, 2011-06-16 15:13 — jie4v7i14

Sappic does seem a complex problem, Mr. Divine, almost harem-like, when said ladies are not serviced enough, as you know, happens to stock in the field of the female variety when they are not covered enough.

Two female pet dogs go nuts when they come into season - a sappic explosion in dogs world. Quite an embarressment carry-on over tea with the local Vicar.

Tue, 2011-06-14 16:21 — Eagle (not verified)

Yes, it matters. Since no-one seems to be bothering to ask him to his face whether he was doing it for US intelligence. As is obvious from the Guardian interview, he is actually quite a bad liar so who knows, a direct question may just work.

And if it was an intelligence stunt - and really, with that kind of ending, it is very likely - of course they would choose someone who could write a largely plausible story.

Do some real investigative journalism for goodness sake

Thu, 2011-06-16 15:17 — jie4v7i14

Sapphic, even, if you are confused on googling, friends.

Isn't just a mankind thing.