In a story updated by MSNBC: "A female blogger who emerged as an unlikely spokesperson for the largely anonymous anti-government protests sweeping Syria was seized by armed men on the streets of the capital, according to a post late Monday."
Amina Araf, who holds duel US/Syrian citizenship, pens 'A Gay Girl in Damascus' under the name Amina Abdallah, was walking with a friend when three men in their twenties grabbed her, someone claiming to be her cousin wrote. Being openly gay is very unusual and risky in the region.
"One of the men then put his hand over Amina's mouth and they hustled her into a red Dacia Logan with a window sticker of Basel Assad," a person identifying herself Rania O. Ismail wrote on the blog Monday night.
Bassel Assad was the late brother of President Bashar Assad who headed presidential security until his death in 1994.
Rights groups say 1,000 civilians have been killed in around two months of protests against Assad and his Baath Party
The blog went on to say, "the men are assumed to be members of one of the security services or the Baath Party militia. Amina's present location is unknown."
Araf's father, who was in hiding, was willing to go public in order to locate her, according to the blog.
"He has asked me to share this information with her contacts in the hope that someone may know her whereabouts and so that she might be shortly released," it said.
Ismail wrote that Abdallah, who used her blog to challenge taboos in the conservative country where homosexuality is illegal but unofficially tolerated, had feared she would be abducted.
The freedom of the press watchdog site, Reporters Without Boarders, says that Syrian security officials have arrested numerous bloggers and journalists as part of a widespread crackdown on challenges to President Bashar al-Assad’s grip on power.
Amina made a name for herself by writing about politics, religion and sexuality.
As the revolt around her became more violent, Araf maintained a pacifist stance. As recently as Sunday she wrote:
"Some people say you fight fire with fire: no, you fight fire with water, not with fire. We will put out the blind hatreds of sectarianism not with sectarianism of our own but with love and with solidarity," she wrote.
In the post Araf admitted to being afraid: "Already tales of lynchings have started to begin. How long before there are more?"
In her final post before the abduction Amina posted a poem ending with the lines: "Soaring and flying / Freedom is coming / Here am I wanting / To know it one day."
What you can do to help
Friends and activists have started a Facebook page with updates and information.
You can write to any Syrian Emabassy here in the US or anywhere in the world and demand that Amina be released.
You can contact your Senators and demand that they get involved as Amina is a US citizen.
You can re-post this story and get the word out to as many people as you can.
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