OUTFEST 2015: A GAY GIRL IN DAMASCUS -- THE AMINA PROFILE

A scene from A Gay Girl in Damascus: The Amina Profile.

When she is not there

By Miranda Inganni

In 2011, Sandra Bagaria, a Frenchwoman living in Canada and Amina Abdallah Arraf, a Syrian-American woman living in Damascus, Syria, meet online and begin courting one another. They sext, encourage each other’s creativity, and forge a bond that spans the thousands of physical miles separating them. They fall in love.

With Bagaria's support, Arraf starts a blog called “A Gay Girl in Damascus” as an outlet for her LGBT activism against the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who was already cracking down on Syrian protesters.

Already out to her family, Arraf posted daily (and sometimes more often than that) about attending protests and the struggle she faces. After the secret police come to arrest her one night, Arraf's father (knowing his political connections will serve him well) stands up for his daughter and refuses to let them take her away. In response, Arraf pens a piece entitled, “My father, the hero.” Bagaria, concerned, but proud of her girlfriend, reposts the piece on social media and the press picks it up.

From there Arraf becomes a poster child for an underrepresented community struggling against a despicable government. Bagaria and Arraf continue their long-distance love affair despite Arraf's warnings that her phone has been tapped and she is being watched all the time. Eventually, Sandra’s worst fears are confirmed with she finds out Amina has been abducted. Radio silence.

Spurred by this twist in events, Sandra reaches out to the online activist community, reporters and even the US state department in hopes of tracking down Arraf. And then a strange thing happens. No one can find her.

Travelling around the globe to talk with folks who had been online friends of Arraf's, plus others who were now simple trying to discover the truth behind the mystery, Bagaria unravels a truth that is stranger than fiction.

Directed by Sophie Derespe, A Gay Girl in Damscus: The Amina Profile painstakingly exposes a selfish hoax perpetrated by a manipulative and duplicitous ass. Unfortunately, but perhaps deliberately, the documentary does not explore the many layers of psychologically fuckedupness (clinical term) going on here. Nevertheless, The Amina Profile is told with tact, suspense and tenderness.

 

 

The Amina Profile screens at Outfest Film Festival: July 17, 5 p.m., DGA 2. For more information: Amina.

 

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SUNDANCE 2015: THE AMINA PROFILE

A scene from The Amina Profile.

Desperately seeking gay girl in Damascus

 

By Don Simpson

 

Sophie Deraspe’s The Amina Profile begins with a sultry online romance between Amina Arraf and Sandra Bagaria. They met on Facebook then soon began emailing and sexting each other. Based in Syria, Arraf achieved international celebrity via her blog “Gay Girl in Damascus.” Arraf bravely risked her life by attaching her real name and image to a blog which rebelliously documented her participation in the early days of the Arab Spring. Bagaria observed Arraf’s revolutionary actions from the safety of her home in Canada, impressed (and turned on) by Arraf’s audacious behavior, all the while concerned about Arraf’s safety; because, despite living thousands of miles away apart and having never met in person — let alone heard each other’s voice — Arraf and Bagaria considered themselves to be in a relationship.

 

After Arraf was purportedly kidnapped by the Syrian government, Bagaria began to search for anyone who might have some information regarding Arraf’s situation. As more people began asking questions, it became increasingly obvious that Arraf was nothing like her online profile. Arraf’s blog “Gay Girl in Damascus” was promptly discredited and major new organizations admitted that they were duped. It was not all that comforting to Bagaria that she was not the only one fooled by the online persona of “Amina Arraf,” so she takes it upon herself to confront the real person.

 

In the greater context of things, it was probably the LGBTQ Syrian communities who were harmed the most by this charade. They were given a false sense of security by “Gay Girl in Damascus,” leading them to believe that it was safe to “out” themselves and stand up to Bashar al-Assad and his cronies. “Gay Girl in Damascus” also gave the Syrian LGBTQ community a voice in the international media, but after the blog was outed as an elaborate ruse, the mainstream media lost interest in them.

 

For better or worse, the “Gay Girl in Damascus” affair has spawned a greater level of reluctance towards online activists. Perhaps this will serve as a lesson for people (especially the media) to authenticate sources before believing them. Though no matter how many cautionary tales about false online personas are presented to our society, there will always be people intent upon believing everything that they read on the Internet. This is especially true with online relationships, which most likely is why Deraspe chose to enter this story via Bagaria’s interactions with Arraf. Deraspe is extremely careful about her representation of Bagaria, carefully avoiding making her out to be a romantic fool. In Deraspe’s eyes, there is only one fool in this story and that is the person hiding behind the “Amina Affaf” avatar.

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