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Syria
Gay Syrian blogger kidnapped by armed men
Amina Arraf, author of ‘A Gay Girl in Damascus’ had written posts and given them to her cousin in case anything happened to her. Her family believe she is alive and well.
A SYRIAN BLOGGER who wrote about her experiences of living as a lesbian in Damascus has been kidnapped.
Amina Arraf, 35, who wrote under the name Amina Abdullah is the author of A Gay Girl in Damascus, and was seized by armed men last night. An update posted on the blog by a Arraf’s cousin Rania states that she was “seized by three men” and bundled into a car. Her cousin expresses hope that Arraf is “simply in jail and nothing worse has happened to her”. She also says that Amina had previously given her information to post should anything happen to her.
In a more recent update Rania reveals that the family believes that Amina will be released soon, and that if those who took her wanted to kill her, they would have done so by now.
The account of the kidnapping also reports that the vehicle Arraf was taken away in bore a sticker of Bassel Assad, who is the brother of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
Arraf’s blog, which featured posts about the Syrian uprising, was becoming increasingly popular. She wrote in April about an attempted abduction, and had been interviewed by media outlets like CNN and the Guardian.
Read: Syrian government vows ‘decisive” response after killing of security forces>
