{"id":35504,"date":"2011-06-13T12:38:14","date_gmt":"2011-06-13T09:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=35504"},"modified":"2023-04-05T12:23:19","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T09:23:19","slug":"gay-girl-in-damascus-comes-outas-a-man-in-istanbul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2011\/06\/13\/gay-girl-in-damascus-comes-outas-a-man-in-istanbul\/","title":{"rendered":"Gay Girl in Damascus comes out\u2026as a man in Istanbul"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>A Gay Girl in Damascus: Apology to readers<\/h2>\n<h3>Apology to readers<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-35507\" title=\"amina-arraf_200_200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/amina-arraf_200_200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/amina-arraf_200_200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/amina-arraf_200_200-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/>I never expected this level of attention. While the narrative vo\u0131ce may have been fictional, the facts on th\u0131s blog are true and not m\u0131sleading as to the situation on the ground. I do not believe that I have harmed anyone &#8212; I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about.<\/p>\n<p>I only hope that people pay as much attention to the people of the Middle East and their struggles in th\u0131s year of revolutions. The events there are be\u0131ng shaped by the people living them on a daily basis. I have only tried to illuminate them for a western audience.<\/p>\n<p>This experience has sadly only confirmed my feelings regarding the often superficial coverage of the Middle East and the pervasiveness of new forms of liberal Orientalism.<\/p>\n<p>However, I have been deeply touched by the reactions of readers.<\/p>\n<p>Best,<\/p>\n<p>Tom MacMaster,<\/p>\n<p>Istanbul, Turkey<\/p>\n<p>July 12, 2011<\/p>\n<p>The sole author of all posts on this blog<\/p>\n<p>via A Gay Girl in Damascus: Apology to readers.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"VftNAHpTwJ\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/tr\/content\/2011\/06\/09\/suriyeli-blogcu-amina-arrafin-serbest-birakilmasi-icin-sen-de-bir-imza-ver\/\">Suriyeli blogcu Amina Arraf\u2019\u0131n serbest b\u0131rak\u0131lmas\u0131 i\u00e7in sen de bir imza ver!<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Suriyeli blogcu Amina Arraf\u2019\u0131n serbest b\u0131rak\u0131lmas\u0131 i\u00e7in sen de bir imza ver!&#8221; &#8212; Turkish Forum\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/tr\/content\/2011\/06\/09\/suriyeli-blogcu-amina-arrafin-serbest-birakilmasi-icin-sen-de-bir-imza-ver\/embed\/#?secret=mJIIOP3jS0#?secret=VftNAHpTwJ\" data-secret=\"VftNAHpTwJ\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Gay Girl in Damascus: Apology to readers Apology to readers I never expected this level of attention. While the narrative vo\u0131ce may have been fictional, the facts on th\u0131s blog are true and not m\u0131sleading as to the situation on the ground. I do not believe that I have harmed anyone &#8212; I feel [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":35507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,922],"tags":[5835],"class_list":["post-35504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-syria","category-world","tag-a-gay-girl-in-damascus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}